nd respecting his conduct."[11]

In reading through these State letters, one is struck with the
diplomatically(?) cunning composition of them. There does not seem to
be a manly phrase from beginning to end. Trickery, suspicion, cruelty,
veiled or apparent, and an occasional dash of pious consideration and
bombast sums up these perfidious documents. A few extracts will convey
precisely the character of the men who were carrying on negotiations
which should have been regarded as essentially delicate.

In February, 1821, Bathurst writes to Lowe:--

"Sufficient time will have elapsed since the date of your last
communications to enable you to form a more accurate judgment
with respect to the extent and reality of General Bonaparte's
indisposition. Should your observations convince you that the
illness has been _assumed_, you will of course consider yourself
at liberty to withhold from him the communication which you are
otherwise authorised to make in my despatch No. 21," &c.

On April 11, 1821, Lowe writes to Bathurst:--"The enclosed extract of
a letter from Count Montholon may merit, as usual, your lordship's
perusal." (This, of course, is intended as wit.) "It may be regarded
as a bulletin of General Bonaparte's health, meant for circulation at
Paris."

Dr. Antommarchi, in writing to Signor Simeon Colonna on March 17,
1821, after dilating on his master's health, the climate, &c., bursts
out in a paragraph: "Dear friend, the medical art can do nothing
against the influence of climate, and if the English Government does
not hasten to remove him from this destructive atmosphere, His Majesty
soon, with anguish I say it, will pay the last tribute to the earth";
and in a postscript he adds: "I offer the _undoubted facts_ stated
above, in opposition to the gratuitous assertions in the English
newspapers relative to the good health which His Majesty is stated to
enjoy here."

On March 17, 1821, Montholon writes to Princess Pauline Borghesi:
"The Emperor reckons upon your Highness to make his real situation
known to some English of influence. He dies without succour upon this
frightful rock; his agonies are frightful." At the time Napoleon was
suffering thus, letters were published in some of the Ministerial
newspapers purporting to have come from St. Helena and representing
him to be in perfect health.

On May 6, 1821, Lowe writes to Bathurst announcing the death of the
Emperor. It is a long