Napoleon had refused to discuss it, saying he would not remain on the island long enough for it to be built. Lowe was trying to do his best and wanted to get workers started on the construction. He asked O’Meara where he thought General Bonaparte would like it erected. The doctor promptly answered: ‘He would like the Briars.’ The governor said that was out of the question—it was too close to town.31

‘I hate this Longwood,’ Napoleon fulminated. ‘The sight of it makes me melancholy. Let him put me in some place where there is shade, verdure and water. Here it either blows a furious wind, loaded with rain and fog, or the sun beats on my head through the want of shade, when I go out. Let him put me on the Plantation House side of the island if he really wishes to do anything for me. But what is the use of coming up here proposing things, and doing nothing?’32

He was in a bad mood, having read an account in The Times which he recognised as being by Catherine Younghusband. In a private letter that her aunt had sent to the newspaper, she had boasted that after she and her daughter sang Bonaparte an Italian duet, ‘I understood he talked of us for three days’. There was a description of the dinner to which she had been invited: ‘The greatest state and etiquette is observed at the Court of Longwood; not a single word was uttered during dinner, excepting by Buonaparte himself. All the Marshals and Countesses sat mumchance; but I chattered away to his Majesty without any fear, which appeared to amaze them all. You cannot form an idea of the awe they all stand in of him, and he treats them, ladies and all, in the most cavalier manner.’ The former emperor had offered her a plate of sweetmeats and ‘I was told by his Secretary, Count Lascases [sic], that it was a favour Queens had never received from him’.33

There would be no further invitations for Mrs Younghusband. Las Cases defended her and said that her words had been misconstrued. He wrote later that she had ‘declared openly that she had not written the ridiculous letter which had appeared under her name, and that either her friends in England had made alterations in that letter, or it had been read in company, imperfectly retained and incorrectly sent to the press’.34 Nonetheless, Catherine’s name never appeared again in the orderly’s log of visitors to Longwood.35

The Times caused more trouble, reporting that Madame Bertrand was ‘sick of the adventure, quarrels with her husband for being such a fool as to stay at St Helena and wishes to return home. All Buonaparte’s French cooks and servants mutinied, and said they were prisoners of war as well as himself, and would not obey him.’36

The omens were not auspicious when on 16 July Lowe arrived at Longwood for his fourth interview with his prisoner, which he reported in detail to Bathurst. He was ushered into the presence to find Napoleon with his hat under his arm. The prisoner launched into a litany of complaints about the restrictions imposed on him and his suite, especially the opening of their mail before it was delivered to them. Lowe replied that he acted only in compliance with his instructions.

Napoleon observed that it was unnecessary to impose so many restraints—it was almost impossible to get away from the island: ‘It would be impossible, unless with the connivance of the governor or of the admiral.’ He was not interested in the building of a new house; it would take six years’ construction ‘and by then there will be a change in the Ministry in England, or a new government in France, and I shall no longer be here’. In the meantime he wished to move to a more pleasant location. Lowe answered, as he took his leave, that he was ‘always happy to show attention to every request’ which was not incompatible with the main object of his duty.37

CHAPTER 13

THIS ACCURSED PLACE

An American vessel, ‘a very fast sailer’, appeared off the island in July 1816 but eluded the British frigates that tried to intercept her. It returned day after day, as if reconnoitring landing places. It may have been the True Blooded Yankee; Bathurst had sent Lowe intelligence in May that this privateer had sailed from Bahia, Brazil, with the aim of liberating Bonaparte. Lowe supported Admiral Malcolm’s request for another fast vessel to ward off such attempts: ‘I really consider a small corvette well to windward as essential to prevent the approach of any suspicious vessel. There is hardly any obstacle otherwise to their coming in close to the shore during the night-time, sending in a boat, and disappearing before the morning.’1

Napoleon now found a use for the billiard table the governor had sent up to Longwood: to lay out his escape-plan maps. Montholon had received an offer from an English captain to help get Napoleon past the barrier of sentries, off the island and transport him to the United States, ‘for a million, to be paid on landing’. Gourgaud took part in the discussion around the baize table: ‘Napoleon said: “It could be assumed I was remaining in my room. The Governor is used to my remaining indoors for several days on end. We could send one of our ladies, or perhaps both of them, to call at Plantation House; O’Meara would go into town, and while Lady Lowe was making polite conversation about me in her drawing room, we should leave this accursed place.”’ But he then rejected such tempting visions, shaking his head: ‘It is a very seductive picture, but alas it would be madness. I must either die here or France must come and get me.’2

Soon after, Betsy and Jane Balcombe called.