The subject of this memoir had thus the good fortune to take captive and convey to the shores of Great Britain, a man who had been for so many years the scourge of Europe, and destroyer of the human race. Buonaparte’s subsequent removal from the Bellerophon, his transportation to St. Helena, and dissolution, have already been recorded[1]. Previous to his quitting that ship, he sent one of his attendants to her commander, proposing to present him with a gold box, containing his portrait set with diamonds, the value of which was said to be 3000 guineas; but the offer was declined by Captain Maitland, who some time afterwards addressed the following letter to the printers of the “Edinburgh Annual Register,” correcting several mistatements contained in that publication respecting his prisoner:
“I must state, that Buonaparte never conducted himself with arrogance whilst he was on board the ship which I commanded. He knew the world too well, and was aware he could not have adopted a measure more likely to defeat any wish he might have entertained, of being considered as a crowned head; but, in fact, he never attempted to exact such respect; and so far from its being shewn to him, he had not even the honors due to a General-Officer paid on his coming on board the Bellerophon; any honors that could be construed into those due to the former rank he had held, did not originate with me, and certainly were not demanded by him. Where the other paragraph could originate I am at a loss to conceive, as I can assert most solemnly, that at no period in my presence (and I was the only person in the ship who had direct communication with him, his own people excepted) did he ever threaten to commit suicide. It is true, some of his attendants hinted that he would be guilty of that crime whether with his concurrence or not, I cannot pretend to say; but when the question was put to them by me, if he had ever said he would put himself to death, they acknowledged he had not; and the expression they had construed into that threat was, that he had determined not to go to St. Helena; and if I may be allowed to judge from the sentiments he expressed on the subject, it was an act he never had in contemplation[2].”
- ↑ See Vol. I. p. 527, and note *, at p. 721.
- ↑ Buonaparte arrived in Torbay nine days after his surrender; from thence proceeded to Plymouth, off which port he was removed to the Northumberland on the 7th August.
His fate is no doubt still deplored by the remainder of the revolutionary factions in England and France; but certainly not by any patriotic individual of either country. We ourselves feel much greater regret for the poor Bellerophon, a ship which after contributing in an eminent degree to the defeat of our implacable enemy in the three great battles of June 1,
