thout giving them the
satisfaction of extorting a word of querulous remonstrance. His
captors, no doubt, were perpetually haunted by the dread that he might
somehow contrive to make his escape, and that if he once got away from
St. Helena the whole struggle might have to begin all over again. No
doubt, too, his captors would have said, speaking in the spirit of the
times, that Napoleon was not to be trusted like an honorable prisoner
on parole, and that there was no way of securing the peace of the world
but by holding him under close and constant guard. The whole story of
those years of captivity is profoundly sad, and is one which may
probably be read with less pain even by Frenchmen than by high-minded
Englishmen. There has lately been given to the world in the pages of
an American magazine, _The Century_, a continuation of the record once
made by Dr. Barry E. O'Meara of his conversations with Napoleon during
Napoleon's exile in St. Helena. Dr. O'Meara was a surgeon in the
English navy, and was serving in the _Bellerophon_ when Napoleon came
on board. He was allowed to take care of Napoleon by the British
Government, and, as he was an Irishman, he felt a certain sympathy with
Napoleon and came to be treated by the fallen Emperor as a friend. He
published a volume called "A Voice from St. Helena," in which he gave a
detailed account of his talks with the great Emperor. The book was
much read {14} at the time of its publication, and created a deep
interest wherever it was read. From this work O'Meara left out many of
the memoranda he had written down, probably because he thought they
might give offence needlessly to living persons; but the withheld
memoranda were all carefully preserved and passed into the hands of
some of his descendants in New Jersey, and have after this long lapse
of time been published at last. They tell us with painful accuracy of
the petty annoyances constantly inflicted upon Napoleon, and of the
impatience and fretfulness with which, day after day, he resented them
and complained of them. We seem to live with the great dethroned
Emperor in his hours of homeliest complainings, when every little
grievance that burns in his heart finds repeated expression on his
lips. Few chapters in the history of fallen greatness can be more
touching than these pages.

Not all that Napoleon said about England, however, was mere complaint
and disparagement. The world of London may be interested in lea