ing desirous of having a
witness to all that might pass.

"After breakfast (during which Captain Sartorius came on board) we
retired to the after-cabin, when Monsieur Las Cases began on the same
subject, and said, 'The Emperor was so anxious to stop the further
effusion of blood, that he would go to America in any way the English
Government would sanction, either in a neutral, a disarmed frigate, or
an English ship of war.' To which I replied, 'I have no authority to
permit any of those measures; but if he chooses to come on board the
ship I command, I think, under the orders I am acting with, I may
venture to receive him and carry him to England; but, if I do so, I
can in no way be answerable for the reception he may meet with (this I
repeated several times); when Las Cases said, 'I have little doubt,
under those circumstances, that you will see the Emperor on board the
Bellerophon.' After some more general conversation, and the above
being frequently repeated, Monsieur Las Cases and General Lallemand
took their leave: and I assure your Lordship that I never, in any way,
entered into conditions with respect to the reception General
Buonaparte was to meet with; nor was it, at that time, finally
arranged that he was to come on board the Bellerophon. In the course
of conversation, Las Cases asked me whether I thought Buonaparte would
be well received in England; to which I gave the only answer I could
do in my situation--'That I did not at all know what was the intention
of the British Government; but I had no reason to suppose he would not
be well received.' It is here worthy of remark, that when Las Cases
came on board, he assured me that Buonaparte was then at Rochefort,
and that it would be necessary for him to go there to report the
conversation that had passed between us (this I can prove by the
testimony of Captain Sartorius, and the first Lieutenant of this ship,
to whom I spoke of it at the time), which statement was not fact;
Buonaparte never having quitted Isle d'Aix, or the frigates, after the
3rd.

"I was, therefore, much surprised at seeing Monsieur Las Cases on
board again before seven o'clock the same evening; and one of the
first questions I put to him was, whether he had been at Rochefort. He
answered, that on returning to Isle d'Aix, he found that Buonaparte
had arrived there.

"Monsieur Las Cases then presented to me the letter Count Bertrand
wrote concerning Buonaparte's intention to come on board