exile we should probably never have seen that side of this
versatile nature. The lines which he writes to the portrait of his son
are painfully touching. For some reason they were kept concealed, and
found some time afterwards. Here they are, but the English translation
does not do them justice:--

Delightful image of my much-loved boy!
Behold his eyes, his looks, his smile!
No more, alas! will he enkindle joy,
Nor on some kindlier shore my woes beguile.

My son! my darling son! wert thou but here,
My bosom should receive thy lovely form;
Thou'dst soothe my gloomy hours with converse dear,
Serenely we'd behold the lowering storm.

I'd be the partner of thine infant cares,
And pour instruction o'er thy expanding mind,
Whilst in thy heart, in my declining years,
My wearied soul should an asylum find.

My wrongs, my cares, should be forgot with thee,
My power Imperial, dignities, renown--
This rock itself would be a heaven to me,
Thine arms more cherished than the victor's crown.

O! in thine arms, my son! I could forget that fame
Shall give me, through all time, a never-dying name.

Here is another version of the same thoughts:--

TO THE PORTRAIT OF MY SON.

O! cherished image of my infant heir!
Thy surface does his lineaments impart:
But ah! thou liv'st not--on this rock so bare
His living form shall never glad my heart.

My second self! how would thy presence cheer
The settled sadness of thy hapless sire!
Thine infancy with tenderness I'd rear,
And thou shouldst warm my age with youthful fire.

In thee a truly glorious crown I'd find,
With thee, upon this rock, a heaven should own,
Thy kiss would chase past conquests from my mind
Which raised me, demi-god, on Gallia's throne.

Perhaps the Emperor did not wish to show all the anguish by which he
was being hourly devoured, but who can read these lines now without a
pang of emotion? The overpowering conviction that his much-loved boy
would be destroyed haunted him. Many people to this day believe that
he was right, and that his son's health was sedulously undermined. But
if that be so, the Imperial House of Austria will have to answer for
it through all eternity. Napoleon knew that this much-treasured bust
was at Plantation House, and said to O'Meara, if it had not been given
up he would have told a tale which would have made the mo