Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/418

402 great pains were taken to place the camp out of his sight. But this could not be done without giving up the very best situation for a camp."

Finally, Napoleon began to be even forgotten by the people among whom his lot was cast:

"Bonaparte leads a secluded life, few or none ever going near him, although no person of respectability has been refused a pass when asked for; but so little is he now thought of that his name is seldom or never mentioned, except on the arrival of a ship. Indeed, the inhabitants express so little curiosity that two-thirds of them have not yet seen him (although he has been to St. Helena eight months), nor do they ever seem inclined to go a hundred yards out of their way for that purpose. Even Mrs. Wilkes, the wife of the late Governor, although she was six months in the island after he arrived, went away without seeing him, whereas the curiosity of the passengers going home from India has almost exceeded credibility."

, our bluff English observer is disgusted by Napoleon's selfishness in the small affairs of daily life, and this is his estimate of his character and manners:

"Greatness of mind or character, in my opinion, he does not possess, very frequently acting like a