XVIII. He has little pity for them.
"One ought never to break one's word," he remarked to Gourgaud, "and I
despise traitors." On hearing that Labedoyere was condemned to death,
he at first shows more feeling: but he comes round to the former view:
"Labedoyere acted like a man without honour," and "Ney dishonoured
himself."[555]

We may hereby gauge the value which Napoleon laid on fidelity. For him
it is the one priceless virtue. He esteems those who staunchly oppose
him, and seeks to gain them over by generosity: for those who _come
over_ he ever has a secret contempt; for those who desert him, hatred.
Doubtless that is why he heard the news of Ney's execution unmoved.
Brilliantly brave as the Marshal was, he had abandoned him in 1814,
and Louis XVIII. in the Hundred Days. The tidings of Murat's miserable
fate, at the close of his mad expedition to Calabria, leave Napoleon
equally cold.--"I announce the fatal news," writes Gourgaud, "to His
Majesty, whose expression remains unchanged, and who says that Murat
must have been mad to attempt a venture like that."--Here again his
thoughts seem to fly back to Murat's defection in 1814. Later on, he
says he loved him for his brilliant bravery, and therefore pardoned
his numerous follies. But his present demeanour shows that he never
forgave that of 1814.[556]

Meanwhile, thanks to the energy of Cockburn and his sailors, Longwood
was ready for the party (December 9th, 1815), and the Admiral hoped
that their complaints would cease. The new abode contained five rooms
for Napoleon's use, three for the Montholons, two for the Las Cases,
and one for Gourgaud: it was situated on a plateau 1,730 feet above
the sea: the air there was bracing, and on the farther side of the
plain dotted with gum trees stretched the race-course, a mile and a
half of excellent turf. The only obvious drawbacks were the occasional
mists, and the barren precipitous ravines that flank the plateau on
all sides. Seeing, however, that Napoleon disliked the publicity of
Jamestown, the isolation of Longwood could hardly be alleged as a
serious grievance. The Bertrands occupied Hutt's Gate, a small villa
about a mile distant.

The limits within which Napoleon might take exercise unaccompanied by
a British officer formed a roughly triangular space having a
circumference of about twelve miles. Outside of those bounds he must
be so accompanied; and if a strange ship came in sight, he was to
return within bounds.