nature is known to be excited. Yes, Sir, there are numbers who would have rejoiced to hear that you had bit the ground on the field of battle, who are now disposed to wish you every comfort that can be safely allowed in your present situation. If the Northumberland had overtaken you in a French man of war, endeavouring to make your meditated escape to America, every officer, and every sailor and soldier would have been bravely engaged in the attempt to take, burn, sink, or destroy the ship that bore you; yet, as you have readily acknowledged, you were treated by them, during the whole of the voyage, with every gentle, manly, and polite attention. And, if I may venture to speak of myself, I shall beg leave to add, that I was bred up in the hatred of you; nay, that no proofs of Holy Writ were more strongly imprint ed in my mind, than the truth of the then universally prevailing opinions concerning you; nevertheless, I am ready to shew you every personal courtesy, to be thankful for the civilities I have received from you, and to offer you such service as I am permitted by the benevolence of the Government which I serve, and may be consistent with those regulations which its political wisdom has thought necessary to provide for the safeguard and ultimate security of your person." I was resolved to speak my sentiments with freedom, and you may now think, my good friend, that I did not balk my resolution. I could not, indeed, forbear to defend the generous temper of Englishmen when it received such an attack. My candid sentiments and unreserved language, appeared, however, to meet my auditor's approbation; and he asked me, to my great surprise, if I remembered the history of Captain Wright. I answered-" Perfectly well; and it is a prevailing opinion in England, that you ordered him to be murdered in the Temple." With the ut most rapidity of speech he replied"For what object? Of all men, he was the person whom I should have most desired to live. Whence could I have procured so valuable an evidence as he would have proved on the trial of the conspirators in and about Paris. The heads of it he himself had landed on the French coast." My curiosity was at this moment such as to be be trayed in my looks. "Listen," continued Napoleon, "and you shall hear. The English brig of war, commanded by Captain Wright, was employed by your government in landing traitors and spies on the west coast of France. Seventy of the number had actually reached Paris; and so mysterious were their proceedings, so veiled in impenetrable concealment, that although General Ryal, of the Police, gave me this information, the name or place of their resort could not be dis covered. I received daily assurances that my life would be attempted, and though I did not give entire credit to them, I took every precaution for my preservation. The brig was afterwards taken near L'Orient with Captain Wright, its commander, who was car ried before the Prefect of the Department of Morbeau, at Vannes. Gen. Julian, then Prefect, had accompanied me in the expedition to Egypt, and recognised Captain Wright on the first view of him. Intelligence of this circumstance was instantly transmitted to Paris, and instructions were expeditiously returned to interrogate the crew separately, and transfer their testimonies to the Minister of Police. The purport of their examination was at first very unsatisfactory; but at length, on the examination of one of the crew, some light was thrown on the subject. He stated that the brig bad landed several Frenchmen, and among them he particularly remembered one, a very merry fellow, who was called Pichegru. Thus a clue was found that led to the discovery of a plot which, had it succeeded, would have thrown the French nation a second time into a state of revolution. Captain Wright was accordingly conveyed to Paris, and confined in the Temple; there to remain till it was found convenient to bring the formidable accessaries of this treasonable design to trial. The law of France would have subjected Wright to the punishment of death; but he was of minor consideration. My grand ob ject was to secure the principals, and I considered the English Captain's evidence of the utmost consequence towards completing my object."- He again and again most solemnly asserted, that Captain Wright died in the Temple by his own hand, as described in the Moniteur, and at a much earlier period than has been generally believed.—At the same time he stated, that his assertions were founded on documents which he had since examined. The cause of this inquiry arose from the visit, I think he said, of Lord Ebrington to Elba; and he added-"that nobleman appeared to be perfectly satisfied with the account which was given him of this mysterious business."-I was so far encouraged by the easy, communicative manner of the Ex-emperor, that I continued my observations without reserve: I therefore did not hesitate to express my doubts respecting the time that Captain Wright remained in the Temple previous to his death. To satisfy me in this particular, Napoleon turned over a long succession of pages in a late publication of Mr. Goldsmith, which had been brought him by Sir Hudson Lowe. I do not recollect the title, which is probably familiar to you, who have suffered nothing that relates to the government of France to have escaped you: but I could perceive, that it consisted of Extracts from the Moniteur, &c. during the Imperial reign. As he referred to the Index, he frequently pointed out the name of Wright, speiled Right, and with a confident expectation, as it cer tainly appeared to me, of finding some document that would confirm his account. The author, however, either had not been able to discover any written testimony, to mark the precise time of Captain Wright's death, or had intentionally withheld it; and the latter Buonaparte repeatedly and firmly in sisted must have been the cause of any doubt remaining as to the truth of his assertion. mained in a reclining posture. The interest attached to the subject, and the energy of his delivery, combined to impress the tenor of his narrative so strongly on my mind, that you need not doubt the accuracy of this repetition of it. He began as follows: "At this eventful period of my life, I had succeeded in restoring order and tranquillity to a kingdom torn asunder by faction, and deluged in blood. That nation had placed me at their head. I came not as your Cromwell did, or your third Richard. No such thing. I found a crown in the kennel; I clean. sed it from its filth, and placed it on my head. My safety now became necessary, to preserve that tranquillity so recently restored; and, hitherto, so satisfactorily preserved, as the leading characters of the nation well know. At the same time, reports were every night brought me (I think he said by General Ryal), that conspiracies were in agitation; that meetings were held in particular houses in Paris, and names even were mentioned, at the same time, no satisfactory proofs could be obtained, and the utmost vigilance and ceaseless pursuit of the police was evaded. General Moreau, indeed, became suspected, and I was seriously importuned to issue an order for his arrest; but his character was such, his name stood so high, and the estimation of him so great in the publie mind, that, as it appeared to me, he had nothing to gain, and every thing to lose, by becoming a conspirator against As he turned over the leaves of this me: 1, therefore, could not but exonevolume, he acknowledged that many of rate him from such a suspicion. I acthe reports were genuine, but with fre- cordingly refused an order for the proquent inaccuracies and mis-statements: posed arrest, by the following intimaand if my memory is correct, he partition to the Minister of Police:-Yon cularised that which was given of the have named Pichegru, Georges, and battle of Marenge. But he did not Moreau; convince me that the former stop here; and continually desired to is in Paris, and I will immediately know whether I perfectly comprehended cause the latter to be arrested.-Anohis meaning, as that was his most earn- ther and a very singular circumstance est wish. And now, to my utter asto- led to the developement of the plot, nishment, he entered upon the event of One night, as I lay agitated and wakethe Duke d'Enghein's death. This was ful, I rose from my bed, and examined a topic that could not be expected; and the list of suspected traitors; and particularly by me, as there appeared Chance, which rules the world, occaamong his followers, who were always sioned my stumbling, as it were, on the on tip-toe to be his apologists, an eva- name of a surgeon, who had lately resive silence or contradictory statements, turned from an English prison. This whenever this afflicting event became man's age, education, and experience the subject of inquiry, which had occa- in life, induced me to believe that his sionally happened during the course of conduct must be attributed to any our voyage. Here Napoleon became other motive than that of youthful fa very animated, and often raised himself naticism in favour of a Bourbon: as en the sofa, where he had hitherto re- far as eircumstances qualified me to Marop. Mag, fol. LXX. Dec. 1816. 8 Y * judge, money appeared to be his ob- political creed. But I did not becoma "Your country also accuses me of the death of Pichegru."-I replied, "It is most certainly and universally believed throughout the whole British empire, that he was strangled in prison by your orders." He rapidly answered, "What idle, disingenuous folly! a fine proof, how prejudice can destroy the boasted reasoning faculties of Englishmen? Why, I ask you, should that life he taken away in secret, which the laws consigned to the hands of a public executioner. The matter would have been different with respect to Moreau. Had he died in a dungeon, there might have been grounds to justify the sus picion that he had not been guilty of suicide. He was a very popular cha racter, as well as much beloved by the army, and I should never have lost the odium, however guiltless I might have been, if the justice of his death, sup posing his life to have been forfeited by the laws, had not been made apparent by the most public exection." Here he paused: and I replied"There may, perhaps, be persons in England, who are disposed to acknow ledge the necessity of rigorous mea sures at this important period of your history; but none, I believe, are to be found, who would attempt to justify the precipitate manner in which the young Prince was seized, tried, sentenced, and shot." He instantly, answered, "I was justified in my own mind, and I repeat the declaration which I have already made, that I would have ordered the execution of Louis XVIII. At the same time, I solemnly affirm, that no message or letter from the Duke reached me after sentence of death had been passed upon him." Talleyrand, however, was said to be in possession of a letter from the royal prisoner, addressed to Napoleon, which they who are well qualified to know declared he took upon himself not to deliver, till it was too late to be of any service to the writer. I saw a copy of this letter in possession of Count de las Cases, which he calmly represented to me as one of the mass of documents, formed or collected to authenticate and justify certain mysterious parts of the history which he was occasionally employed in writing, under the dictation of the hero of it. Do not startle; 'the letter was to beg his life; and to this effect. It stated his opinion that the Bourbon dynasty was terminated. That was the settled opinion of his mind, and he was about to prove the sincerity of it. He now considered France no otherwise than as his country, which he loved with the most patriotic ardour, but merely as a private citizen. The crown was no longer in his view: it was now beyond the possibility of recovery; it would not, it could not be restored. He therefore requested to be allowed to live and devote his life and services to France, merely as a native of it. He was ready to take any command or any rank in the French army, to become a brave and loyal soldier, subject to the will and orders of the government, in whose heds soever it might be, to which he was ready to swear fealty; and that, if his life were spared, he would devote it with the utmost courage and fidelity to support France against all its enemies. Such was the letter which, as it was represented to me, Talleyrand took care not to deliver till the hand that wrote it was unnerved by death.-Napoleon continued to speak of the Bourbon family "Had 1," he said, “been anxious to get any, or all the Bourbons into my possession, I could have accomplished the object. Your smugglers offered me a Bourbon for a stated sum (I think he named 40,000 francs), but, on coming to a more precise explanation, they entertained a doubt of fulfilling the engagement as it was originally proposed. They would not undertake to possess themselves of any of the Bourbon family absolutely alive; though, with the alternative, alive or dead, they had no doubt of completing it. But it was not my wish merely to deprive them of life. Besides, circumstances had taken a turn which then fixed me without fear of change or chance on the throne I possessed. I felt my security, and left the Bourbons undisturbed. Wanton, useless murder, whatever has been said and thought of me in England, has never been my practice: to what end or purpose could I have indulged the horrible propensity. When Sir George Rumbold and Mr. Drake, who had been carrying on a correspondence with conspirators in Paris, were seized, they were not murdered." [In looking over these letters for the press, I felt a doubt whe ther this observation respecting Sir George Rumbold was made at this time, or at some other; or whether it proceeded from Buonaparte or Count de las Cases, but I am positive it was made by one or the other.] Here he ceased to speak; and I was determined to gratify my curiosity as far as his present communicative spirit would allow, I was determined to continue the conversation. I accordingly observed, "that of all the undertakings which composed his wonderful career; no cir cumstance had excited such astonishment in England, as his expedition tó Russia, before he had brought the Pe ninsula war to a termination, which, at that time, appeared to be an attainable object." I paused, expecting a reply on the subject; however, he gave none; but, as if he had not heard my observation, proceeded to a renewal, in some degree, of the former topics." Your country," he said, "has accused me of having murdered the sick and wounded of my army at Jaffa. Be assured, that if I had committed such a horrid act, my very soldiers themselves would have execrated me, and I might have looked to their ceasing to obey me. There is no occurrence of life to which I gave more publicity than this. You have an officer, a Sir Robert Wilson, who has written very copiously on the subject of my campaign in Egypt." As he repeated the last sentence, he assumed an air and tone of sarcastic jocularity; and then asked me, if I had read Sir Robert's publication. I replied in the affirmative." It is possible," he said, "that he wrote from the testimony of other people equally prone to error as himself: he cannot pretend to have done it from his own observation.-Can you tell me," continued Napoleon, 1 "whether Sir Sydney Smith, in any official communication to your Government, attempted, in any way, to corroborate the testimony of Sir R. Wilson." I could not, at the moment, sufficiently recollect the purport of his despatches to determine the point, but I replied as I felt, "That he had not." This reply however, indecisive as it was, appeared to afford him considerable satisfaction, as he instantly repeated "I believe so: for Sir Sidney Smith is a brave and just man."-1 here observed that "There are many in England who imagine your jealousy and hatred of Sir Sidney Smith influenced your conduct towards that officer."-He siniled with astonishment at such an idea the thought of coupling the two names appeared never to have entered his imagination. Ridiculous! nonsense! was his reply. He then entered on the following narrative:-"On raising the siege of St. Jean de Acre, the army retired upon Jaffa. It had become a matter of urgent necessity. The occupation of this town for any length of tine was impracticable, from the force that Jezha Pacha was enabled to bring forward. The sick and wounded were numerous; and their removal was my first consideration. Carriages, the most convenient that could be formed, were appropriated for the purpose. Some of them were sent by water to Damietta,and the rest were accommodated in the best possible manner, to accompany their comrades in their march through the Desart. Seven men, however, occupied a quarantine hospital, who were infected with the plague; whose report was made me by the chief of the medical staff (I think it was Degenette). He further added, that the disease had gained such a stage of malignancy, there was not the least probability of their continuing alive beyond 48 hours." "I hereby exclaimed, in a dubious tone, the word-seven! and immediately asked whether I was to understand that there were no more than seven." "I perceive," he replied, "that you have heard a different account."- "Most assuredly, General, Sir Robert Wilson states fifty-seven or seventy-seven; and speaking more collectively your whole sick and wounded." He then proceeded "The Turks were numerous and powerful, and their cruelty proverbial throughout the army. Their practice of mutilating and bar barously treating their Christian prison ers in particular, was well known among my troops, and had a preserva tive influence upon my mind and conduct; and I do affirm, that there were only seven sufferers whom circumstances compelled me to leave as shortlived sufferers at Jaffa. They were in that stage of the disease which rendered their removal utterly impracticable, exclusive of the dissemenation of the disease among the healthy troops.-Situated as I was, I could not place them under the protection of the English: I, therefore, desired to see the senior medical officer, and observing to him, that the afflictions of the disease would be cruelly aggravated by the conduct of the Turks towards them: and that it was impossible to continue in possession of the town, I desired him to give me his best advice on the occasion, I said, tell me what is to be done! He hesitated for some time, and then repeated, that these men, who were the objects of my very painful solicitude, could not survive forty-eight hours. I then suggested (what appeared to be his opinion, though he might not choose to declare it, but wait with the trembling hope to receive it from me;) the propriety, because I felt it would be humanity to shorten the sufferings of these seven men by administering opium. Such a relief, I added, in a similar situation, I should anxiously solicit for myself. But, rather con trary to my expectation, the proposition was opposed, and consequently abandoned. I accordingly halted the army one day longer than I intended; aud, on my quitting Jaffa, left a strong rear-guard, who continued in that city till the third day. At the expiration of that period, an officer's report reached me, that the men were dead.""Then, General," I could not resist exclaiming, "no opium was given." The emphatic answer I received was"No: none !-A report was brought me that the men died before the rearguard had evacuated the city."—I again interrupted him by mentioning that Sir Sydney Smith, when he afterwards entered Jaffa, found one or two Frenchmen alive." Well," he answered, "that, after all, may be possible !”— It was, I think, at this period of the conversation, that he stated his being in possession of a letter from Sir Sydney Smith, written in very complimentary language, which expressed the writer's astonishment as well as praise, |