Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/415

Rh "At six p.m. dinner was announced, when we all sat down in apparent good spirits, and our actions declared our appetites fully equal to those spirits. General Bonaparte ate of every dish at table, using his fingers instead of a fork, seeming to prefer the rich dishes to the plain-dressed food, and not even tasting vegetables. Claret was his beverage, which he drank out of a tumbler, keeping the bottle before him. He conversed the whole of dinner time. . . . After dinner he did not drink wine, but he took a glass of noyau after his coffee, previous to rising from table. After dinner he walked the deck, conversing principally with the Admiral. . . . After walking for some time he proposed a round game at cards, in compliance with which the Admiral, Sir George Bingham, Captain Ross, and myself assembled with General Bonaparte and his followers in the after-cabin, where we played at vingt-un [sic] (which was the game chosen by the Emperor) till nearly eleven o'clock, when we all retired to our beds."

I have given one specimen of the kind of petty humiliations to which Napoleon was exposed; here is another:

"He sat but a short time at dinner, and then went on deck, where he walked, keeping his hat off, and looking round steadfastly and rather sternly to see if the British officers did the same. However, as the Admiral, after saluting the deck