A
few glasses of claret, less than an English pint, were taken during
dinner; and a cup of coffee concluded the second and last meal of the
day, as the first. A single glass of champagne, or any stronger wine,
was sufficient to call the blood into his cheek. His constitutional
delicacy of stomach, indeed, is said to have been such, that it was at
all times actually impossible for him to indulge any of the coarser
appetites of our nature to excess. He took, however, great quantities of
snuff. A game of chess, a French tragedy read aloud, or conversation,
closed the evening. The habits of his life had taught him to need but
little sleep, and to take this by starts; and he generally had some one
to read to him after he went to bed at night, as is common with those
whose pillows are pressed by anxious heads.

Napoleon was elaborately careful of his person. He loved the bath, and
took it at least once every day. His dress at St. Helena was generally
the same which he had worn at the Tuileries as Emperor--viz. the green
uniform, faced with red, of the chasseurs of the guard, with the star
and cordon of the Legion of Honour. His suite to the last continued to
maintain around him, as far as was possible, the style and circumstance
of his court.

As early as the battle of Waterloo, reports were prevalent in France
that Napoleon's health was declining; yet we have already seen that, so
late as April, 1817, no symptom of bodily illness could be traced in his
external appearance. From this time, however, his attendants continued
to urge, with increasing vehemence, the necessity of granting more
indulgence, in consequence of the shattered condition of his
constitution: and, although such suggestions were, for obvious reasons,
listened to at first with considerable suspicion, there can be little
doubt now, that in this matter the fame of Longwood spake truth.

Dr. Arnott, an English physician, already referred to, who attended on
Napoleon's death-bed, has informed us that he himself frequently
reverted to the fact, that his father died of scirrhus of the pylorus.
"We have high authority" (says this writer) "that this affection of the
stomach cannot be produced without a considerable predisposition of the
parts to disease. If, then, it should be admitted that a previous
disposition of the parts to this disease did exist, might not the
depressing passions of the mind act as an exciting cause? It is more
than probable that Napoleon B