no doubt
he meant Lord Keith and Sir H. Bunbury to understand, that, rather than
submit to the voyage in question, he would commit suicide; and what he
thus hinted, was soon expressed distinctly, with all the accompaniments
of tears and passion, by two French ladies on board the
_Bellerophon_--Madame Bertrand and Madame Montholon. But all this
appears to have been set down, from the beginning, exactly for what it
was worth. He who had chosen to outlive Krasnoi, and Leipzig, and
Montmartre, and Waterloo, was not likely to die by his own hand in the
_Bellerophon_. We desire not to be considered as insinuating, according
to the custom of many, that Napoleon ought to have rushed voluntarily
on some English bayonet, when the fate of the 18th of June could no
longer be doubtful. Laying all religious and moral obligations out of
view (as probably he did), Napoleon himself said truly, that "if Marius
had fallen on his sword amidst the marches of Minturnae, he would never
have enjoyed his 7th consulate." No man ever more heartily than Napoleon
approved the old maxim, that while there is life there is hope; and, far
from thinking seriously at any time of putting an end to his own days,
we must doubt if, between his abdication at the Elysee and the time
wherein he felt the immediate approach of death, there occurred one day,
or even one hour, in which some hope or scheme of recovering his
fortunes did not agitate his mind.

With regard to Napoleon's reclamations against the decision of the
English government, it may probably suffice _now_ to observe--1st, that
that government had never, at any period, acknowledged him as Emperor of
France, and that it refused to be a party to the treaty under which he
retired to Elba, simply because it was resolved not to acknowledge him
as Emperor of Elba. These things Napoleon well knew; and as to his
recent re-exercise of imperial functions in France, he well knew that
the English government had continued to acknowledge Louis XVIII. as
_King_ all through the hundred days. Upon no principle, therefore, could
he have expected beforehand to be treated as _Emperor_ by the ministers
of the Prince Regent; nor, even if he had been born a legitimate prince,
would it have been in the usual course of things for him, under existing
circumstances, to persist in the open retention of his imperial style.
By assuming some _incognito_, as sovereigns when travelling out of their
own dominions are accustomed to