is abilities, which were kept in
constant activity by a mind whose ambition there was no satisfying;
and, had they both lived to the present period, he would have been
much the greater man of the two."

It does not appear from the statement of Buonaparte's attendants, that
he had made any very considerable provision for the future, in the
event of a reverse of fortune. They often regretted his poverty; and
Madame Bertrand assured me that he was not possessed of more than a
million of francs--forty-two thousand pounds of our money[12]; which,
if correct, is certainly not a very large sum for a man who had had so
many millions at his disposal. "The Emperor has always declared," she
said, "that he would rise or fall with the country, and never would
enrich himself out of the public property." He also upon one occasion,
when there was some intention of leaving Madame Bertrand with her
children in England, after stating Bertrand's poverty as an objection
to that arrangement, said to me, "My finances are not such as to
enable me to give him much assistance."

[Footnote 12: Since this narrative was written in the year
1815, it has been proved by Buonaparte's will, that either
his attendants were misinformed, or that they, as well as
himself, misrepresented the state of his finances, as he left
in the hands of Lafitte, the banker, in Paris, a sum of money
amounting to nearly four hundred thousand pounds sterling,
besides a very considerable sum said to be vested in the
American funds.]

Buonaparte's carriage, which was taken at the battle of Waterloo by
the Prussian cavalry, contained many articles of great value. In it
was a necessaire, in which all the instruments, bason, &c. were
composed of gold; a sword set with diamonds, and a diamond necklace,
estimated at a very large sum of money, which one of his sisters (I
think, the Princess of Borghese) put round his neck the night he took
leave of her at Paris, on his setting out to join the army previous to
the battle of Waterloo, and which he had taken off and deposited in a
secret place in the carriage; Marchand, his valet de chambre, being so
nearly taken by the Prussian hussars, that he quitted the carriage
without having time to secure it. But I have since learned from Las
Cases's Memoirs, that the necklace alluded to was saved, and that Las
Cases had it concealed about his person all the time he was