nd rugged tars aboard the
_Bellerophon_ and _Northumberland_ were drawn in touching sympathy
towards the man who had thrown himself into their hands in the fervent
belief that he would be received as a guest and not as a prisoner of
war.

We know that he had other means of escape had he chosen to avail
himself of them. He had resolved after his abdication to live the time
that was left to him in retirement, and believing in the generosity of
the British nation, he threw himself on their hospitality. He had made
his way through a network of blockade when he returned from Egypt and
Elba, and looking at the facts as they are now before us, it is
preposterous to adhere to the boastful platitude that he was so hemmed
in that he had no option but to ask Captain Maitland to receive him as
the guest of England aboard the _Bellerophon_, and it may be taken
for granted that the resourceful sailors knew that he had many
channels of escape. They knew the _Bellerophon_ was a slow old tub,
and that she would be nowhere in a chase.

Besides, it was not necessary for Napoleon to make Rochefort or
Rochelle his starting-point. The troops and seamen at these and the
neighbouring ports were all devoted to him, and would have risked
everything to save him from capture. He knew all this, but he was
possessed of an innate belief in the chivalry of the British
character, and left out of account the class of men that were in
power. He knew them to be his inveterate foes, but was deceived in
believing they had hearts. Their foremost soldier had taken an active
share in his defeat, and he acknowledged it by putting himself under
the protection of our laws. The honest English seamen who were his
shipmates on both ships were not long in forming a strong liking to
him, and a dislike to the treatment he was receiving. They felt there
was something wrong, though all they could say about it was that "he
was a d----d good fellow."

Lord Keith was so afraid of his fascinating personality after his
visit to the _Bellerophon_ that he said, "D----n the fellow! if he
had obtained an interview with His Royal Highness, in half an hour
they would have been the best friends in England." In truth, Lord
Keith lost a fine opportunity of saving British hospitality from the
blight of eternal execration by evading the lawyer who came to
Plymouth to serve a writ of Habeas Corpus to claim the Emperor's
person, and the pity is that an honoured name should have been