davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15

Seated on the back of a little cape
pony and escorted by the admiral, he
rode away in the morning by a wind
ing road hewn in the rugged side Of
which jamestown sits. When he had
mounted to the summit. the village
port was lost to view and the boundless
spaces of the Atlantic. the heathery
plateaus with their few squalid slave
huts and their gnarled and stunted
gum trees and the wild gray sleeps
of the southern slope of ST. Helena lay
before him. Within that drear horizon
he was condemned to life imprison-
ment.
After visiting and silently inspecting
Longwood a group of farm buildings
which the British government had
chosen for his Residence he turned
and furnished for his occupancy. On
his outward ride he had seen from the
road little bungalow in vale, sur
rounded with shady trees and bloom
Ming flowers, where the Balcombes an
English bridesmaids family, had pro-
vided a pretty refuge from the torrid
heat of the village. 1t had seemed to
him an oasis in stony desert, and,
with the consent of the admiral. he
stopped to inquire If he could be shell
tered there.
The homeless emperor. who had given
laws to Europe from the palaces Of
Paris. Madrid, Berlin, Milan, Vienna
and Moscow, asked only for the privi-
lege of living in pavilion out on the
lawn at 1.-THE Briars," and he was SO
! pleased with the place that he settled
himself there at once. And although
jamestown was only little more than
a mile away, 1t never again saw MN
after he rode out of 1T that morning
following his arrival in the island.
Il an yua In front OF the
little summer house. and there ne
passed the first nine weeks OF his ex-
Y lie. 1t was small and rude establish
yment for one who had dwelt in marble
halls, but none of his palaces was seat
i cd in a prettier park than the Briars,
| with its silvery cascade. its leafy lanes
of banyan and pomegranate trees It's
myrtle grove. Its orange orchard ana
dts poisoning garden. There was no
broom for any of his suite except Las
4 Cases, who slept in the loft Of the sum-
mer house. Yet in spite Of all disad-
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
vantages. he maintained his imperial

state.
Little Betsy Balcombe, in the incorrig-
ible independence of IA years, was the
only one who deiied all court ceremonial.
Quickly recovering from the terror that
filled her at the sight of Napoleon, she
sang for him, ''Ye Banks and Braes'
the first evening of his stay at the Briars.
and thenceforth boldly insisted on his
becoming her familiar and playmate. She
made him dshevel his hair and roar like
the bugbear she had supposed him to
be- she seized his jeweled sword and,
flourishing it over his head. commanded
him to say his prayers, and like acts
of lese majestic were perpetrated daily by
the '.leetle monlee." as the victim Of the
pranks called her.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
The Eagles Eyrie

He had found It consoling in his Ethan
exile. the year before, to overlook Eu-
rope from the windows of his retreat but
St. Helena offered him no such consola-
tion 1t is like raft anchored in mid
ocean, it's nearest neighbor, the Island
of Ascension, being 500 miles and more
away, while it is 1900 miles west of Africa
at the mouth of the Congo, 100 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
Remote and alien as it seemed to Ma
poleon from the moment it first swan
into his vision until at the end of five
and half years his eyes were closed
upon it in DEATH there was yet a GER
tain kinship between him and the rocks
of his captivity. For even as the irresti-
BILE force of violent social CONFUSION
had lifted him above the level of man.
kind, so in some awful upheaval of ma
ture, the fire-scarred stone that forms the
Island of st. Helena had been torn from
the ocean bed and heaped in a mountain
Gus 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 Al square
miles, 1t is only 10 miles in length at
the iOllSeSl anu seven miles W1ue at the
widest. And when the fallen monarch,
who had ruled 6O,o00O0O people, came, the
population of the island was less than
5000, 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
still in Elba, when they were thunder
struck by the news that he was about
to be landed on their shore. hey
swarmed into jamestown, then the ly
village of st. Helena, and crowded $
one street in their curiosity to Sc him as
he was conducted to the house of viii
lager. Admiral Cockburn walked on one
side of him and Bertrand, the grand mar
shall of the palace, on the other, and from
the breast of his familiar gray overcoat
the diamonds in the star of the Legion Of
Honor glittered through the dusk. That
October Is was the 10Th anniversary Of his
receiving command of the city of Paris
the general in-chief of the army of the
interior, and now he was banished to the
end of the earth.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
The ExiIe's Ecape

May D, 1871.
The sun was setting behind the black
clouds which had rolled In from the
ind-swept Atlantic and which had
burst upon st. Helena in n furious
storm like the roar Of mighty batteries.
The islanders, almost upacquainted
with the sound of thunder. were filled
with terror The tents OF the British
guards at Longwood were blown away
and the picket ships, in peril OF the
rocks, made for the open sea-
The night before while Montholon
watched by his chief, who had limped
into the drawing room TO pass his few
remaining days. he thought he heard
him mutter France Armee - teted
Armee" as with the last full burst of
that energy which had shaken thrones
he sprang from his cot and dragged the
count to the floor with him. Thence
forth throughout the day he lay mo-
tionless. on his little camp bed. 30
inches wide. on which he had slept the
night before Austerlitz and---Waterloo.
In the next room FIR vignali knelt at
the altar. while about the dying en-
peror stood his grand marshal OF the
palace and Nine. Bertrand with their
children; Count de Montholon and Mar
chand and st. Denis with others OF the
servants.
When the evening tempest was beat
ing loudest against the walls OF Long
wood, at II minutes before 9, the exile
made his final escape. AS the tormented
soul took flight. the calmness ana beauty
of youth overspread the countenance on
the pillow leaving no trace OF the rest
less ambition and turbulent passions that
SO long had troubled IT,
A grave was dug In spot chosen ~
the Emperor beside spring and be-
meath the shade of two willows In Z
deep ravine, then called tho Devils
Punchbowl, but thenceforth more agree
ably known as Geranium valley Some
slabs of stone torn from the kitchen floor
at Longwood were selected for the COW
erng of the tomb. and the mourning
followers wished to carve upon II merely
the name Napoleon. The governor, hove
ever, forbade the inscription as too irns
peral, Unless the surname BoIsapart1
were added. and the stone WAS left bare
On the fourth day after death, a fuk
neral car bore the body to the molans
chody vale With the sword Of the con-
aueror and the cloak OF Marcngo lying
on the coffin, and as the great captain
was laid to rest. British guns fired acroso
his nameless grave.
Copyright. 19i3-1si4. by James Morgan.>
Next Sunday-the fate OF the King Of
Rome. Marie Louise and the BonapaStaA
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
Tightening the Chains

While St. Helena was not paradise
without d serpent before the advent OF
its new governor, Sir Hudson Lowe. In
April 1876 II quickly took on an unhappy
resemblance to penal colony. For reas-
ons Of their own, the tory ministers
had singled out this honest but narrow
person to be Napoleon's custodian and
given him salary of 100000 year.
Coming direcstly from those who chose
him, presumably Sir Hudson brought
specific instructions to tighten and shorten
the chains Of the imperial prisoner. He
called for q reduction in the expenses
Of the exile's household. and forbade him
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
Before Hudson Lowe


In the beginning he prided himself on
the fortitude with which he bore his ex-
lie. "Gourgaud," said he "own that 1t
takes splendid courage to live here!
Yet, my God. I am as calm as II were
in the Tuileries'' He seemed disposed
to make the best of his lot. He COM
mended the very simple preparations Ad-
miral Cockburn had made for his comfort
at Lonswood and he praised the tempera-
ture there. He playfully called the we'll
meaning sailor my shark but ne
troubled him with few or no complaints.
The admiral with solemn humor replied
to a communication from Bertrand In the
name of the Emperor that he knew OF no
Emperor on the island and addressed him
as General Bonaparte But Napoleon only
lightly retorted: ''The last heard OF
General Bonaparte he was at the Pyra-
mids and Mt. Tabor" He protested to be
only amused by the insistence of the
British government on designating him as
a general "They might as well call me
archbishop he laughed, 'for l was the
head of the church as well as Of the
army"
Even as he had captivated Admiral
Ussher, who took him to Elba. and Cap
tain Maitland, who took him to England,
he got along. very well with Admiral
Cockburn and all the British officials In
his first half year at st. Helena. He
received In the most affable manner many
dignitaries of Great Britain who paused
at the island in their voyages around
the Cape Of Good Hope, and he enter
tained at dinner from time to time the
admiral, the governor, the colonel and
the lesser officers of the regiment which
guarded him at Longwood.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
At LongwOOd

December and the tropic summer had
come. when Longwood was at last in
readiness for Napoleon, and he entered
upon his slife tenancy of the place. This
group of one-story buildings, mostly OF
stone, which his host, the British ma
ton, had provided for the comfort of its
most celebrated guest, was not a sump-
tuous residence and he found it a poor
exchange for the simple dwellings that
he had occupied the year before in Elba
Indeed, Longwood was only big cowshed
in the beginning and the manure still lay
heaped beneath it's wooden floors. Yet ii
had lately. sufficed the lieutenant gov
ernor of the island as summer camp.
A trellised porch had been hastily con-
structed under Admiral Cockburn's or
ders. From the porch one entered a
rather large front room and passed
through it to what was called the salon.
Back of the salon was the dining room,
badly lighted only by a glass door. On
one side of the dining room was the IL
brary, while on the other was the study,
with Napoleons bedroom, IA feet by 12
opening out of it, and behind this was
his bathroom. The rest of the structure
was given over to the suite and the SER
wants.
No strain had been imposed on the
British treasury for the decorations and
furnishings. The walls, stained by their
former base uses, were covered with
broken nankeen. muslin curtains hung
at the windows and the chairs, tables
and sofas are said to have been such as
could be picked up on the island at Sec
ond hand. ~
Tne landscape was nearly as bare as
the house. In one direction lay the sea,
but the prospect was made somewhat
disagreeable by the high trade winds
which blew In from the southeast limos.
continually. In all other directions, the
scant verdure and small twisted trees
OF the valleys wearied, or the huge, bare
mountains repealed the eye. And the only
neighbors in sight were the red coats
OF the Fifty-third regiment of the British
army In their encampment few hundred
yards away. just beyond a ravine.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15

threshold of his chamber Nor did he
ever yield the point, and British army
captain was charged with the duty of
peeping In at him through the win
dows. Notwithstanding he peeped day
after day. some days keeping his eyes
glued to the panes for IL hours, the cap
~ cnuld not be positive that the
naked figue he saw coming from the
tub was Napoleon's or the hand that he
" strcpping n razor another time was
the veritab1e hand that once ruled Eu-
s-ine moreover, there were weeks when
he could not even offer a surmise as to
the presence of the prisoner, and Men-
tholon tainted Lowe with not know
ing positively that Napoleon had been
at Longwood for two months.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15

1t will be seen that the captive of 81.
Helena was by no means condemned to
solitary imprisonment On the contrary.
the British government permitted him
to surround himself with an imperial
establishment. He took with him his
imitation mameluke, st. Denis, his ia
vorite valet, Marschand. and two other
Wallets, besides an usher two grooms, a
footman, butler and a chef When
the staff at Longwood was fully or
ganized 1t comprised no less than Al
persons.
Yet Napoleon found himself terribly
lonely in, the midst of that great crowd
of retainers. But then he had been
doomed from birth to a lifelong 1oneli-
ness and never was lonelier at st. Hell
ena than when he was on the throne.
THE Emperor Is what he is, my dear
Gourgaud," General Bertrand sighed.
1T Is because of his character that he
has no frin'eds, that he has SO many
enemies and, indeed. that he is here
in ST. Helena
His imperious nature brought him
courtiers, but denied him friends It
persisted in holding him aloof even on
a rock in the midst of the ocean and
in maintaining in the COW shed of Long
wood a mocxery of court ceremonia1s.
of the palace. All arrayed themselves
as if for attendance upon him at the
Tuileries and even his physician In his
last illness had to put on court dress
before entering the chamber of death.
All heads were uncovered before him
and every one remained standing in his
presence, hour after hour, Gourgaud
having to lean against the door to keep
from falling and Bertrand and Montho-
Ion nearly fainting under the strain
He was no less exacting in the tasks
he set his suite than when he could re-
ward his servitors with great titles anc
rich estates His pent-up energies burst
forth In torrent of letters and memoirs
For IA hours Montholon wrote, and wrote
at hiss dictation until utterly exhausted
Las Cases read and wrote for him unit
his overtaxed eyes failed.
The count also gave him long and weari-
some English lessons. While he contrivet
to teach him to read the bad things thu
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
We must always obey
our destiny, for all is writ
ten above.

London papers were saying about him,
he did not succeed in introducing him to
the difficult strategy of English gram
mar. Here is the only English compost
ton by Napoleon which has survived.
Count Lascases-Sinee sixt week y
learn the English and do not any
progress. Slxt weeks do fourty and two
days. 1t might have learn fivty words,
for day, 1 could know 1t two tousands
and two hundred. 1t is the dictionary
more of fourty thousand; even he could
most twenty; bot much OF TENS. For
know 1t or hundred and twenty week.
which do more two years. After this you
shall agree that the study one tongue is
a great labor who 1T must do into the
young aged.
"Longwood, this morning, the seven
march thursday one thousand eight hum
bred sixteen after nativity the yors Jesus
Christ
Count Lascases, Chamellan Of the $.
M Longwood into his paac; very press. y
Even as in his barrack days, so at st.
Helena, Napoleon made friends only with
books, which always lay thickly strewn
about him. Sometimes he sat up all night
with them. At other times ne lay on his
couch and read for hours without inter-
ruption
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
An Unhappy Family

Nor could the captive find solace in
the bosom of his household, for that
was really more uncongenial than Long
wood and st. Helena. IL the Tory min
listers, when they were choosing his pris-
on Isle and his prison house. had chosen
his companions, they could hardly have
made a choice better calculated to tor
inent him than the selection made by
fate He himself had scarcely more vo-
lition in the matter than he had in the
designation Of his place of exile Even
he could not command men to follow
him into q tomb. and he had to take such
as offered to accompany him.
Generally they were men who had more
or less reason to fear that the Bourbons
would not permit them to remain in
France, Bertrand was condemned for
treason after he left, and Gourgand,
Montholon and Las Cases were all roy
alists who could have small hope of
receiving a cordial welcome from Louis
XVIII on his second restoration. Gem
eral Gourgaud, indeed, was born in the
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
In the Path of Napoleon 100 Years After His Downfall

Napoleon's exile at st. Helena has
been more clouded with controversy
than any other part of his life. Mr..
Morgan has tried to remove the veil
of passion and tell the story without
prejudice. While it is the only i'm
Sortant scene in the path of Napoleon
which he did not visit in the course
of his journey, he has been aided IN
his portray of it by close and dis
passionate study of the testimony OF
the exile's comparisons and custodians
and the voluminous photography that
the subject has inspired.
If there is any other event in BIZ
ography that equals in dramatic in
terest the rise of Napoleon, it is prob
ably his fall, the bitter depths of
which are sounded in this chapter to-
day.
DATES AND EvENTS-AGE 46-51
October 16, 1815-Napoleon landed at St.
Helena.
October II, 1s15-Inspected Longwood and
took up his residence at the Briars.
December 10. 1Sl5-Removed to Long
wood.
April IA, 1S16-Sr Hudson Lowe, the new
governor, arrived.
April IS, 1Sl6-The first interview be-
tween Napoleon and Lowe.
August Is, 18l6-The last interview be-
tween the governor and his prisoner.
November %, 1s16-Las Cases arrested.
December 80, 1816-Las Cases deported.
March II, 1S18-Gourgaud left for Eu-
rope.
July 25 1S1S-Dr. O'Meara deported.
September %, 1S18-Lord Bathurst or
dered that Napoleon should be seen twice
a day by an officer.
July =, 1s19-Countess de Montholon re-
turned to Europe.
September %, 1S19-Dr. Antommarchi
and two chaplains arrived
March =, 1S21-Montholon and Bertrand
arranging to leave st. Helena.
May s. 1S21-Death of Napoleon.
May 9, 1s21-Buried in the DEVILS Punch
bowl
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15

The Last Days
Among all Napoleon's brother sover-
igns the only one to speak word of
pity was the one who had the most TO
forgive. With Christian charity Plus
VII listened to the prayers of the afflic-
TED mother of the prisoner and appealed
to the prince regent of England and the
allied monarc chs for the alienation Of the
banlshed Emperor's hard lot "Savona
and Fontainebleau," Plus said. were but
errors OF judgement or chimeras OF hui
man ambition. He no longer po-
sesses means of wronging anyone and we
wish him to cause remorse to no man."
The British government consented to
send a friendly physician and two priests
to attend the captive, and Cardinal Fesch
chose three Corsicans. Dr. Antommarchi
and Frs Vignall and Buonavita. But
while Irr vignall heard his confession ana
at the last gave him the sacraments OF
the church none of the newcomers proved
to be agreeable companions for Napoleon.
He was Indifferent to the simple priests
and could not give his confidence or his
respect to the doctor.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15

breaking upon the lonely Shores Of the
last of the chain of islands that SO fate
fully mark the voyage of mis- 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 bat
tie which he launched from an island in
the Danube. For the possession of the
Island of Malta, he quarreled with the
island kingdom of Great Britain and lost
a continent. Exiled first to the Island of
Elba, he returned to challenge again his
insular foe and, losing the battle once
more, he now saw from the quarter deck
of the Northumberland the barren and
blackened sides of the Island Of st. Hell
ena waiting to shut him in forever as
within the grim walls of a prison.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15

wood colony had succumbed to home
sickness and gone away. The prisoner
fancied that In the end no one but March
and, his valet, would remain and he said:
You will read to me and you will close
my eyes.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15

very midst of the old court of the Bour-
bons at Versailles and Count de Las Cases
had gone into exile with that family at
the time of the revolution, even as he
was now in exile with Napoleon.
Three We're men with families and
two had dragged their unwilling wives
and their children with them into their
voluntary captivity. Nine. Bertrand went
with her three children only after vain
ly striving to swerve her husband from
his purpose and after failing to drown
herself by jumping overheard into
Plymouth harbor. The Countess de
Montholon, who was accompanied by
one child, had less reason for sharing
her husbands devotion to the unfor-
tunate Emperor. he having forbidden
from the throne her marriage to Mon
tholon because she CHANGED to have two
husbands living. Count de Las Cases
took his son with him, but he left be-
hind him a wife who seems in the
counts language, to have been unable
to conceive either the merit or tho
charm of heroic resolutions and sacri-
fices<
Bertrand shared the second exile be-
cause he had participated in the first at
Elba. Montholon had known Napoleon
since boyhood. Las Cases, on the other
hand, was almost unknown to the EN-
peror, who welcomed him as recruit
chiefly because he had acquired a USE
full knowledge of English while a bour-
bon emigrant in England. The fourth
member of the suite, DIR. Barry O'Meara,
was the strangest of all the follow
ers, for that Irish surgeon in the Brit
ish navy never had seen Napoleon until
ne came aboard the Bellerophon
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15

S the British warship Northum-
berland, in October, 1916. drew
near the end of its long trip of
70 days, Napoleon watched the
pillows of the southern sea
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15

Next Sunday-the fate OF the King Of
Rome. Marie Louise and the BonapaStoA
The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1914-01-29
10 Clean Door Mats.

To clean door mats put the mat into
bath of soapy water and scrub with
hard scrubbing brush. Then rinse well
in cold water standing it up to dry.