een his ship and the coast.
On the 26th Maitland was ordered round to Plymouth Sound: and the
arrival of Buonaparte having by this time transpired, the ship was
instantly surrounded by swarms of boats, filled with persons whose
curiosity nothing could repress. There was considerable difficulty in
keeping the ship itself clear of these eager multitudes. Napoleon
appeared on the deck, was greeted with huzzas, and bowed and smiled in
return.

On the 31st of July, Sir H. Bunbury, under-secretary of state, and Lord
Keith, admiral of the Channel fleet, repaired on board the
_Bellerophon_, and announced the final resolution of the British
government: namely, 1st, that _General Buonaparte_ should not be landed
in England, but removed forthwith to St. Helena, as being the situation
in which, more than any other at their command, the government thought
security against a second escape, and the indulgence to himself of
personal freedom and exercise, might be reconciled; 2ndly, that, with
the exception of Savary and L'Allemand, he might take with him any three
officers he chose, as also his surgeon, and twelve domestics.

This letter was read in French by Sir Henry Bunbury. Napoleon listened
without look or gesture of impatience or surprise. Being then asked if
he had anything to reply, he with perfect calmness of voice and manner
protested against the orders to which he had been listening, and against
the right claimed by the English Government to dispose of him as a
prisoner of war. "I came into your ship," said he, "as I would into one
of your villages. If I had been told I was to be a prisoner, I would not
have come." He then expatiated at great length on the title given
him--General Buonaparte--and on the right which he had to be considered
as a sovereign prince; he was, he said, three months before, as much
Emperor of Elba as Louis was King of France, and, by invading another
monarch's dominions, could not have forfeited his own rank as a monarch.
He next adverted to the ignoble attitude in which England would place
herself in the eyes of the world by abusing his confidence--hinted that
either his father-in-law or the Czar would have treated him far
differently--and concluded by expressing his belief that the climate and
confinement of St. Helena would kill him, and his resolution, therefore,
not to go to St. Helena. By what means he designed to resist the command
of the English government, Napoleon did not say: there can be