the ship (a
copy of which has been transmitted to your Lordship by Sir Henry
Hotham); and it was not till then agreed upon that I should receive
him; when either Monsieur Las Cases, or General Gourgaud (I am not
positive which, as I was employed writing my own despatches), wrote to
Bertrand to inform him of it. While paper was preparing to write the
letter, I said again to Monsieur Las Cases, 'You will recollect I have
no authority for making conditions of any sort.' Nor has Monsieur Las
Cases ever started such an idea till the day before yesterday. That it
was not the feeling of Buonaparte, or the rest of his people, I will
give strong proof, drawn from the conversations they have held with
me.

"As I never heard the subject mentioned till two days ago, I shall not
detail every conversation that has passed, but confine myself to that
period.

"The night that the squadron anchored at the back of Berryhead,
Buonaparte sent for me about 10 P.M. and said he was informed by
Bertrand, that I had received orders to remove him to the
Northumberland, and wished to know if that was the case; on being told
that it was, he requested I would write a letter to Bertrand, stating
I had such orders, that it might not appear that he went of his own
accord, but that he had been forced to do so. I told him, I could have
no objection, and wrote a letter to that effect (a copy of which is
here annexed), which your Lordship afterwards sanctioned, and desired
me, if he required it, to give him a copy of the order.

"After having arranged that matter, I was going to withdraw, when he
requested me to remain, as he had something more to say: he then began
complaining of his treatment in being forced to go to St Helena: among
other things, he observed, 'They say I made no conditions: certainly,
I made no conditions: how could a private man (_un particulier_) make
conditions with a nation? I wanted nothing from them but hospitality,
or (as the ancients would express it) air and water. I threw myself on
the generosity of the English nation; I claimed a place _sur leurs
foyers_, and my only wish was to purchase a small estate and end my
life in tranquillity.' After more of the same sort of conversation I
left him for the night.

"On the morning he removed from the Bellerophon to the Northumberland,
he sent for me again, and said, 'I have sent for you to express my
gratitude for your conduct to me, while I have been on board the ship
you comma