ing days of December. He was still
wandering in Southern Europe when Parliament reassembled, and the
Christmas Eve of that year was rendered memorable to him by an interview
with Napoleon in exile at Elba.

[Sidenote: A GLIMPSE OF NAPOLEON]

Through the kindness of Lady Russell it is possible here to quote from
an old-fashioned leather-bound volume in her husband's handwriting,
which gives a detailed account of the incidents of his Italian tour in
1814-15, and of his conversation on this occasion with the banished
despot of Europe. Part of what follows has already been published by Mr.
Walpole, but much of it has remained for eighty years in the privacy of
Lord John's own notebook, from the faded pages of which it is now
transcribed:--'Napoleon was dressed in a green coat, with a hat in his
hand, very much as he is painted; but, excepting the resemblance of
dress, I had a very mistaken idea of him from his portrait. He appears
very short, which is partly owing to his being very fat, his hands and
legs being quite swollen and unwieldy. That makes him appear awkward,
and not unlike the whole-length figure of Gibbon the historian. Besides
this, instead of the bold-marked countenance that I expected, he has fat
cheeks and rather a turn-up nose, which, to bring in another historian,
makes the shape of his face resemble the portraits of Hume. He has a
dusky grey eye, which would be called vicious in a horse, and the shape
of his mouth expresses contempt and decision. His manner is very
good-natured, and seems studied to put one at one's ease by its
familiarity; his smile and laugh are very agreeable; he asks a number of
questions without object, and often repeats them, a habit which he has,
no doubt, acquired during fifteen years of supreme command. He began
asking me about my family, the allowance my father gave me, if I ran
into debt, drank, played, &c. He asked me if I had been in Spain, and if
I was not imprisoned by the Inquisition. I told him that I had seen the
abolition of the Inquisition voted, and of the injudicious manner in
which it was done.'

Napoleon told Lord John that Ferdinand was in the hands of the priests.
Spain, like Italy, he added, was a fine country, especially Andalusia
and Seville. Lord John admitted this, but spoke of the uncultivated
nature of the land. 'Agriculture,' replied Napoleon, 'is neglected
because the land is in the hands of the Church.' 'And of the grandees,'
suggested his visito