Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp4.djvu/168

 me if actually on the spot: I accordingly rode over, accompanied by my two companions.

“Dr. O’Meara and Captain Blakeney received us as we entered the grounds of Longwood, but gave us no hopes. Buonaparte, they were sorry to say, was not in a humour to see any one: he had not even mentioned my name; and in all probability did not choose to have the subject spoken of again. It was a pity, they said, that we had not been a few minutes sooner, as he had been walking in the garden, and we might at least have had the satisfaction of seeing him. Here was a fresh mortification, and we felt that we could have gone away contented and happy had we got but one glimpse of him, and have had it to say, or rather to feel and recollect, that so prodigious a meteor bad not shot across the political sky of our times without arresting, if only for an instant, our actual observation.

“I have often heard this description and degree of curiosity called unreasonable, and have even known some people who said they would have cared mighty little to see Buonaparte; that in short they would hardly have crossed the street merely to see him. With such persons I can acknowledge no sympathy in this matter; and without fearing to lay myself open to the charge of trifling, I can assert with confidence, that no exertions I have ever made, have been nearly so well repaid by subsequent reflection, as those which have had for their object to get even a momentary view of distinguished men. This is most especially true in the case of Buonaparte; and it would be easy, were it not tedious and out of place, to explain, and, as I think, to justify all this.

“Meanwhile we proceeded onwards to Count Bertrand’s house, at the bottom of the gently sloping bank, on the western brow of which stood the dwelling of Buonaparte. Between the two houses lay a neat flower-garden, intersected by gravel walks, and enclosed by a low hedge: the immediate vicinity was distinguished from the surrounding bleak and desolate country by a few trees, dropped as if by accident in the desart. The Countess Bertrand received us in the midst of her family, in a small, low, uncomfortable apartment, which was rendered still more incommodious in consequence of some repairs in another part of the house, from whence the furniture had been removed; so that sofas, beds, and tables, were huddled together where they had no proper places. The good lady herself seemed to be suffering from toothache; the day was cold, and the scanty fire scarcely warmed the room; a little child was moaning in its mother’s arms, and in short, everything wore an air of discomfort. The person most concerned, however, appeared to be the least sensible of anything being wrong, and received us with smiles and kindness, and spared us all apology for the disorganized state of her establishment. Several very pretty children hearing the voices of strangers, came running in, and played merrily round us during all our stay, unconscious, poor little things, of the strange reverses of fortune under which their parents were