The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-07-22
fFron the London telegraph

A strange Journey, and melancholy one,
has been that Of the widowed ana now
childless lady who left her secluded retreat
ut Cbiselburst TO visit The spot in the grim
South African mealie field where her only
son-her pride, her consolation, and her
hope-fell, with his face 10 the foe, In quar-.
rel that was not bis own. She has accom-
plishsd the object OF her dreary voyage,
aud In returning she will touch at the most
fateiuI rock that history can recDrd-the
modern Caucasus to which the modern
Prometheus was chained for the yulture OF
disappointment and remorse 10 eat his heart
out-the Prometheus to be unbound only
by death. She viii! behold the site OF the
empty grave. for all its vacuity yet the most
famous sepulchre In the whole world. Then
this unhappy lady VIII come back-scarcely
to home-ihe corners Of her house have
been thrown down and the embers on her
hearth are lev cod-but to the sequesfered
asylum TO which she will be followed by the
respectful sympathy OF all Englishmen who
can feel for the woes OF a spouseless wife
and a childcss mother. Her way to Eng.
land will he the watery path followed by
the steamer that took the young Prince I'M
perial, flushed with boyish ambition and
boyish gaIlantry, 10 the torrid cline where
he was to meet his death-the sef-same
path which, sixty.fiye years since, was fol-
lowed by the three-decker Northumberland
bearing on board him who had once been
Emperor OF the French, King OF Italy,
Mediator OF Switzerland, aud Protector OF
the Confederation OF the Rhine, but OF
whom the irrevocable decree OF Nemesis
and his own madly selfish ambition had
made an outlaw and a bankrupt. captive
bandit, hated and desplsed Of MANKIND,
stripped OF his sounding titles, degraded
from his dignities, and transported for lie.
Motives, no doubt, OF reverence and
pietv, and OF loving regard for the consort,
who was the nephew, and, after the demise
Of the King OF Rome, the heir OF the FIRST
Emperor, have inspired the Empress Eu-
genie to halt at the preeipiious shore OF st.
Uelena-if shore the 2aunt. Jagged rock
which rises like misshapen Titan from the
Atlantic can be said to have-and TO Visit
the scenes made memorable by the six years
agony OF the cODqueror and caltIve OF tue
earth. The associations, however, whicn
linQer round the localities once tenanted
by or connected with the greatest OF tue
Bonaparies have faded into all but legen-
dary yagueness. There may be Few an
cient people at jamestown who can re-
member when, between 1913 ana lo2i,
1
and also msy recall, or think they
can recall. TO their minds having
seen Count Bertrand or Las Cases.
Gourgaud or Montholon or O'Meara, when
those attendants on the exile paid their rare
and oflen involuntary visits TO Government
House. The mansion. indeed, once inhab-
tied by General Sir Hudson Lowe. has long
ago been dsesiabshed as an official rest
dence, and was not long since Tor sale.
Fleets Gate has few, II any, traces remain
iny Of having once been the place OF So
iouru of the Grand Marshal Bertrand, and
onIy the oldest inhabitant would he able
to poiDt out the site where stood the camps
OF The regiments OF British infantry by
whom the most dangerous OF prisoners ever
known was girt about as by wall OF steel
and fire; or the race-course where Lieuten-
ant, after Admiral, Rous organized the
frat and last English race that Napoleon
ever SAW. As for Longwood House it.
.on. originally farm belonging 10
the East India Company. and prior to lis
conversion into prison Tor Napoieon Tue
residence OF the Lieutenant-Governor of
the Island, that il-emened dwelling, that
other Malmaison," has suffered since The
,,rstn vf its iliustriuur occupant so much
degradation, so much dillpidatiou, and so
many yicissitudes that it is questionable
whether ut this day it retains the slightest
semblsnce Of its former Self. The drawing
room, the dining-roOm, the bathroom, ana
the library Of the 'eX-Emperor have been by
firms converted into stables and graDarieS,
into barns and thrashin 9. floors, and 1t IS
extremely doubtful whether there is any
local Society for the Preservation OF An
cient Buildings in st. Helena willing to un-
dertake the cost and the trouble OF re-
storing Longwood TO its pristine structural
condtiOn-which did not amount TO much
more than one Of ugliness, melnness, and
discomiolt-snd keeping it in decent re-
pair, II was neither water-tight nor wind
proof in Napoleon's time, and what remains
OF it may be such a Cave OF the Winds as
even the yeniOse King EDlus would de-
cline to dwell in. The paItry furniture, the
wretched painted calico hangings which did
duty as wallpapers, the very locks ana
bolts Of the doors, have long ago been scat
tered over the whole face OF the civilized
earth, and are priced as relies; ana the
dismantled house at Longwood must nave
become, in a picturesque sense, as unin.
teresting as the site OF our old Palace Of
the SAVOY, or as the place where the Bank
side Theatre, at Southwark, once stood. 1t
would be fanatical and almost diseased
sentiment OF hero worship which could i'm
pei an ordinary traveller to regard with any
curiosity the lawn at China Farm where
Napoleon surprised Sir william DOyeton
| and made a picnic breakfast; or the villa
OF The Brlars, where, for a few days fol-
| lowing his landing at st. Helena, the exile
was the guest OF >Ir. Balcombe. the Gov
ernment purveyor. One spot alone in the
islspd must still enchain the attention,
must still nil with deepest thoughts the
minds Of all who visiti it. There yet remain
a place OF pilgrimage and a shrine, the Val
lev Of the Willows and the empty tomb.
-iThe bones OF the BOnapartes.are scattered
FAR and wide. Italy holds many OF their se-
puchres. There lie Joseph and Lucien,
Pauline and Caroline and Eliza. In Rome
| and Florence has their dust min Aed with
the dust. The aches OF Josephine are at
Rueil. Jerome, some time King OF West
phalia, found, as Governor Of the lnvalides,
a tomb close to the mausoleum OF his great
brother. An adopted Bonaparte, Joachim
Napoleon-"l Roi Murat"-iills name
less grave. His corpse after his execution
was huddled into a trench full OF quicklime
| in the wild Caabrian country. The King
OF Rome was inferred in ibe vaults OF the Ca
puchns at Vienna; Nine. Mere was buried
| in Rome the bodies OF Napoleon Ill.
and the Prince Imperial repose IN the
quiet little Roman Catholic chapel at Chisel-
hurst: while the good and evil genius OF
the race-the founder OF this wondrous
famiIy-the man who might have made ms
country, and indeed the better part OF Eu'
rope, prosperous, happy. and free, but VINO
| sDraad instead brOadcast. death, dcyasta-