the bearer of his reply, who
was perfectly ready to draw his sword. Of this opportunity, however,
the Count had the wisdom to avoid taking advantage.

The whole question now turned on the admission of the orderly officer,
to have personal evidence that Napoleon was still in the island--a
matter of obvious necessity, for Europe at that time teemed with the
projects of Revolutionary Frenchmen for setting him free. His escape
would have ruined the governor; but even if it had been a matter of
personal indifference to him, his sense of the public evils which might
be produced by the return of this most dangerous of all incendiaries
would doubtless have made his detention one of the first duties.

However, finding at last that the state of Napoleon's health might
afford a sufficient guarantee against immediate escape, and evidently
with the purpose of softening the irritation between them as much as
possible, it was finally, though "temporarily," agreed to take
Montholon's word for his being at Longwood. On the 21st of September,
the priests and Dr Antomarchi arrived. Napoleon, always active and
inventive, now attempted to interest the Emperor of Russia in his
liberation. It must be owned, that this was rather a bold attempt for
the man who had invaded Russia, ravaged its provinces, massacred its
troops, and finished by leaving Moscow in flames. But he dexterously
limited himself to explaining the seizure of the Duchy of Oldenburg,
which was the commencement of the rapacious and absurd attempt to
exclude English merchandise from the Continent. Oldenburg was one of the
chief entrances by which those manufactures made their way into Germany.
Its invasion, and the countless robberies which followed, had been among
the first insolences of Napoleon, and the cause of the first irritations
of Alexander, as his sister was married to the reigning prince. Napoleon
lays the entire blame on Davoust, whom he charges with both the
conception and the execution. But if he had disapproved of the act, why
had he not annulled it? "I was on the point of doing so," said Napoleon,
"when I received a menacing note from Russia; but," said he, "from the
moment when the honour of France was implicated, I could no longer
disapprove of the marshal's proceedings." He glides over the invasion of
Russia with the same unhesitating facility. "I made war," said he,
"against Russia, in spite of myself. I knew better than the libellers
who reproached me with