The Washington herald., 1914-11-15
NTHEPRISONISLE


O-t. ls. IsI5-Napoleou landed at ST. Heena
or. Il. ul5-Inspectsd BonEWOod and took up hiS
residence at the Briars.
Dee. TO- lsl5-RemoTed to Longwood.
Apil Il. Isl6-Sir Hudson Lowe, the new governor,
arrived.
April ls. lsl5-The first interview between Napolson
and Lowe.
Aug. Is IaS-The Ilst interview bstveen the gov
and his pEisOneT.
Nov. 3 Ils-Las Gases arrested.
Dec. %, lN6-LAs Gases deportsd.
Mch. H. lsls-GoWEzud left for Europe.
July 3. ISS-Dr. OMeara dspDrtsd.
Sept 3 Bls-Lord Bathurst ordered that Nspo-
leon should be sen twice day bg
July -. lsls-Oountss de MoutholOn returned to
Europe.
sert. 3. Ius-DT. kntOmnarchi and two chAp,sins
Meb. Isa-MonthoIon and Betrlnd arranging
leave St Helena
Ass ). Eu-Desth Of Napoleon
NAY 9. ls1-Buried IN the Devils Punch Bowl
As the British warshIp Northumber-
land, in October, 1Sl5, drew near the end
OF its long trip of seventy days, Ma
poleon watched the biIlows of the south
kern sea breaking upon the lonely shores
" the last of the chain of islands that
so fstefully mark the voyage of his life.
Born on an island in the Mediterranean
and crowned on an island on the Seine,
he took his first wife from an island in
the West Indies. and won his second in
A battle which he launched from an
island in the Danube. For the posses
sion of the Island of Malta he quarreled
with the island kingdom of Great Britain
and lost a continent. EKiled first to the
Island of Elba, he returned to challenge
again his insular foe, and, losing the bat
tie once more, he now saw from the
quarter deck of the Northumberland the
barren and blackened sides of the Island
Of St Helena waiting to shut him in for
ever as within the grim walls of a prison.
The Eagles Eyrie.
He had found it consoling in his Ell
ban exile, the year before, to overlook
Europe from the windows of his retreat.
but ST. Helena offered him no such con-
ISOLATION. 1t is like a raft anchored in
mid-OCean. its nearest neighbor, the Is
lard of Ascension, being 800 miles and
more away. while it is !, 200 miles west
of Africa at the mouth of the Congo.
1,119 miles east of South America and the
coast Of Brazil. nearly 1000 miles from
Europe at the Straits of Gibraltar. and
almost 5000 miles from Paris.
eSgRemote and alien as it seemed to Ma
pOleOn from the moment it first swan !
into his vision until at the end of five !
and a half years his eyes were closed !
upon it in death, there was yet a GER
tain kinship between him and the rock
of his captivity. For even as the irresti- |
bic force OF A violent social COnvulsion
had lifted him above the level of man.
kind. SO in some awful upheaval of ma
Iure, the fire-scarred stone that forms |
the Island Of St. Helena had been torn |
from the ocean bed and heaped in a !
mountainous mass whose jagged peaks |
pierce the clouds.
more solitary and melancholy eyrie
could not have been chosen for the cap
tive eagle. With an area OF forty-seven |
square miles, it is only ten miles in !
length al the longest and seven miles at |
the widest. And when the fallen mon
arch, who had ruled 100000 people |
came the population of the island was |
less than 1900, mostly African slaves |
Chinese, and East Indians. Only one
face in four was white.
The islanders had not heard of Water
loo. and even supposed Napoleon to be |
snll in Elba, when they were thunder
struck by the news that he was about |
to be landed their shore. They
rswarmed into Jamestown, then the only |
village of St Helena, and crowded its |
one street in their curiosity to see him |
as he was conducted to the house of |
villager Admiral Cockburn walked on |
one side Of him and Bertrand. the grand !
marshal o. the palace. on the other, and |
!
overCoat the diamonds in the star of the |
Legion Of Honor Elittered through the I
dusk. That 18th of October was the |
twentieth anniversary of his receiving |
General-n-chef Of the army of the in |
trrior. and now he was banished to the |
end OF the earth.
The Homeless Emperor.
Seated on the back Of 4 little cape
PONY pom and escorted by the admiral: he rode |
hewn in the rugged side of the noun
tain, up out OF the ravine in which |
Jamestown sits. When he had mounted
to the summit. the village port was lost
TO view and the boundIess spaces OF the /
Atlantic. the heatherv pIateaus. with
lhelr rev squald slave hUts and their
G9aTled and stunted gum trees and the
Of St Helena lay before him. Within
mat drear horizon he was condemned |
10 hfe imprisonment
AIter visiting and silently inspecting
Pfs%0Gd RPicR the sTf}sb sgTGGg Of farm buildings
20 70 wait until it could be repaired and
lurnished for his occupancy On his out
VAR, %ard ride ha had seen from the road a
with shady trees and blooming ffowers
Where the Balcombes, an English trades
mans family. had provided a pretty
'lage. 1t had seemed to him an oasis
m stony desert and. with the consent
OF he aQnlral, ne stopped to INQUIRE |
II he could be sheltered there
The homeless Emperor, who had given Il
laws to Europe from the palaces of Ii
Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Milan. Vienna and L
Moscow. asked only for the privilege Il
Of living ina pavilion out on the lawn |,
At the Briars.' and he was so pleased Il
with the place that he settled himself Ii
there at once. And although jamestown L
was only little more than a mile away
II never again saw him after he rode Il
out of il that morning following mis-
arrival in the island.
A tent was set up in front OF the 1
little summer house, and there he pass
ed the first nine weeks of his exile Il
1t was a small and rude establishment
for one who had dwelt in marble halls Ii
but none Of his palaces was seated in Ii
a prettier park than the Briars. with Ii
It's silvery cascade, its leafy lanes Of il
banyan and pomegranate trees. its
myrtle grove, its orange orchard and
its blOssoming garden. There was no Il
room for any of his suite except Las II
Cases. who slept in a loft Of the sum- 4
mer house. Yet in spite Of all disad- /,
Ffff