OR, A VOICE FROM ST. HELENA. THE OPINIONS AND REFLECTIONS OF NAPOLEON ON THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENTS IN HIS LIFE AND GOVERNMENT, BY BARRY E. O'MEARA, ESQ., HIS LATE SURGEON. IN TWO VOLUMES.-VOL. II. REDFIELD: 110 & 112 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 7th.-NAPOLEON very particular in inquiring about Captain Meynell, whose death he observed would grieve him, as he had l'air d'un brave homme.* Had some more conversation with him relative to the prisoners made at the commencement of the war. I said, that I believed he had demanded that the ships as well as the prisoners made in them should be given up in exchange for those detained in France. He replied, that he did not recollect that he had demanded the ships. The only reason," added he, "that your government would give as a right for detaining them as prisoners was, that they had always done so in preceding wars, and that it would be lessening to the dignity of the government to give them up, or to consider as prisoners of war those who had been detained by me in France. To this I answered, that they had always done so, because they had to deal with imbéciles, and people who knew not how to act vigorously, and were afraid to retaliate. As to the exchange of prisoners, I offered to effect it in the following manner, viz. to send three thousand men, consisting of two thousand Spaniards and Portuguese, and one thousand English to a certain place, there to be exchanged for three thousand French, and so on until all were exchanged. Your government would not consent to this, but required that all the Eng * lish should be exchanged at first; though the others were your allies, and were taken fighting by your side. As soon as the French prisoners in England heard of this proposal, they wrote over the strongest letters possible, protesting against and praying me not to consent to such terms, alleging, that as soon as your ministers had got all the English prisoners, amounting I believe to ten thousand, they would under some pretext break off the exchange; and that they (the French prisoners) who were already treated badly enough, would then be subjected to every species of brutality and ill-treatment, as the English would no longer be afraid of reprisals. What I most regret," added he, "and am most to blame for is, that during my reign I had not caused the English prisoners to be put on board of pontons, and treated exactly as you treated mine in England. Indeed I had given orders to have it done, and to place them in ships in the Scheldt. Décres, the minister of marine, though he hated you as much as a man could do, opposed it on the ground of the expense, the difficulty of effecting it, and other reasons. There were numbers of reports also from your transport board, testifying the good treatment which the prisoners enjoyed, which imposed upon me for a time; but, as I found out from the prisoners themselves afterwards, they were filled with lies, like the reports that are sent from this island. I was also so much occupied with affairs of a more important nature, that I forgot it." I took the liberty of observing, that I hoped he did not credit what he saw in Pillet's libel. "No, no," replied Napoleon. "I believe no exaggerated statement of the kind. I reason from the testimonies of the prisoners themselves and from the circumstances. In the first place, it was le comble du barbariet to put any prisoners, especially soldiers, in ships at all. Even sailors like to be on shore. I see that the admiral likes to live on shore, as well as * I have some recollection (although I cannot find it in my journal) that Napoleon also told me that he had proposed to the English minister that both powers should simaltaneously land their respective prisoners in such ports in England and France as might have been previously agreed upon, which proposal was not agreed to by his majesty's ministers. + The height of barbarity. |