reading. I give the volume to the public as it is, in the hope that it
may attract in other ways to a fair examination of Napoleon's complex
and fascinating character.

WALTER RUNCIMAN.

_December 3, 1910._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
THE ABODE OF DARKNESS

CHAPTER II
THE MAN OF THE REVOLUTION--CRITICISM, CONTEMPORARY AND OTHERWISE

CHAPTER III
THREE GENERATIONS: MADAME LA MERE, MARIE LOUISE, AND THE KING OF ROME

CHAPTER IV
THE OLIGARCHY, THEIR AGENTS AND APOLOGISTS

CHAPTER V
MESDAMES DE STAEL AND DE REMUSAT

CHAPTER VI
JOSEPHINE

CHAPTER VII
RELIGIOUS NOTIONS OF NAPOLEON

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LIST OF EVENTS AND DATES HAVING REFERENCE TO NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

INDEX

CHAPTER I

THE ABODE OF DARKNESS

In Clause 2 of his last will, dated Longwood, April 15, 1821, the
Emperor Napoleon states: "It is my wish that my ashes may repose on
the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people whom I have
loved so well."

At London, September 21, 1821, Count Bertrand and Count Montholon
addressed the following letter to the King of England:--

"SIRE,--We now fulfil a sacred duty imposed on us by the Emperor
Napoleon's last wishes--we claim his ashes. Your Ministers,
Sire, are aware of his desire to repose in the midst of the
people whom he loved so well. His wishes were communicated to
the Governor of St. Helena, but that officer, without paying any
regard to our protestations, caused him to be interred in that
land of exile. His mother, listening to nothing but her grief,
implores from you, Sire, demands from you, the ashes of her son;
she demands from you the feeble consolation of watering his tomb
with her tears. If on his barren rock as when on his throne, he
was a terror of the world, when dead, his glory alone should
survive him. We are, with respect, &c, &c,

(Signed) COUNT BERTRAND.

COUNT MONTHOLON."

In reply to this touching act of devotion to their dead chief the
English Ambassador at Paris wrote in December, 1821, that the English
Government only considered itself the depository of the Emperor's
ashes, and that it would deliver them up to France as soon as the
latter Government should express a desire to that effect. The two
Counts immediately applied to the French Ministry, but without result.
On May 1, 1822, a further letter was sent to Louis XVIII., by the
grace of God King of France and Navarre, concerning the redep