He puffed out his cheeks and turned back to Somerset as he tapped a finger on the despatch. ‘Boney should be comfortable enough on St Helena, I suppose. I have been there, you know.’
‘Really?’ Somerset raised his eyebrows.
Arthur nodded. ‘On the return voyage from India, the best part of fifteen years ago. As I recall, the climate was pleasant and the uplands attractive. There are worse prisons.’ He paused and frowned. ‘It is a shame that Bonaparte did not perish on the field of battle and spare us all the burden of his incarceration. As it is, he has dealt us a tricky hand.’
‘How so, your grace?’
‘While he lives he must be guarded closely. The world cannot afford to let him escape again. At the same time, it will be politically inexpedient to hand him over to those in Europe who clamour for his blood. There are too many English Whigs and radicals amongst his admirers.’
‘ ’Tis true,’ Somerset agreed bitterly.
‘Still, while he is on St Helena, he can do no harm,’ Arthur concluded. ‘Now then, it is time to face General Mьffling, I fear.’
Somerset smiled thinly. ‘Shall I send for him, your grace?’
Arthur nodded. ‘Let’s get it over with.’
While Somerset left the study to fetch the Prussian emissary, Arthur glanced round the room, reflecting with some wonder that this had been the room where Bonaparte had dreamed his plans for the fate of Europe less than two months before. Now the dreams had crumbled and other nations could begin to hope that a lasting peace had finally dawned.
The door clicked open and Arthur hurriedly composed his mind as he stood up and nodded a greeting to the Prussian officer. Mьffling smiled back as Somerset closed the door and left them alone.
‘Your grace, it is good to see you again,’ Mьffling began.
‘And you. Please take a seat.’ Arthur gestured to the chairs on the other side of his desk as he sat down himself.‘I imagine Marshal Blьcher has sent you to demand that England hands Bonaparte over to suffer Prussian justice.’
‘Indeed, your grace.’ Mьffling pulled out a copy of
‘I would share that sentiment, if it were true that England had decided to shelter Bonaparte. The Prime Minister has decided, however, to send Bonaparte to the island of St Helena, some three thousand miles from Europe, where he will be kept under close guard.’
‘To what end?’ Mьffling shook his head. ‘So that he may be used, by England, as a diplomatic bargaining counter?’
‘No,’ Arthur replied firmly. ‘He is too dangerous a creature to be played with. Bonaparte will remain on the island, isolated from the world, and there he will live out the rest of his days.’
‘Why should he be permitted such an end? After all the death and destruction that he has dealt out to the people of Europe? Marshal Blьcher demands that he be handed over, tried and executed. This, he richly deserves.’
‘Oh, doubtless.’ Arthur nodded. ‘We must, however, consider the wider context, my dear Mьffling.’
‘Wider context?’
Arthur took a brief moment to form his argument. ‘What is the point of executing Napoleon now? What good would it do? It would only satisfy the desire for revenge, that is all. That is not a good enough reason to shed any further blood. It is not . . . civilised.’
‘Forgive me, your grace, but that is an easy thing for the English to say. They have been spared the presence of French soldiers on their soil. I wonder how reticent your countrymen would be if England was not set apart from the rest of Europe by the sea?’
It was a fair point, Arthur conceded. He had seen at first hand the cruelties inflicted by the enemy, and could readily understand the rage of those who had suffered under French occupation. He cleared his throat and spoke.
‘Be that as it may, the execution of Bonaparte will not serve any of us well once revenge has been satisfied. His death at our hands would outrage many in France, and beyond. I dare say there will be people who will say that he did not deserve to be defeated. There will be others who will seek revenge. Then neither I, nor you, nor Marshal Blьcher, will sleep easily in our beds as long as allied forces occupy Paris. It is far better to let Bonaparte fade into obscurity. Then when he dies it will not be an event of note, but a mere detail, as the rest of the world lives in peace,’ Arthur concluded.
Mьffling was silent for a moment as he stared back at Arthur. Then he nodded faintly. ‘Obscurity? I wonder if that will really be his fate.’
‘I hope so. As I hope that Europe will learn never to endure another such.’ Arthur stroked his jaw. ‘If he is not to be cast into obscurity, then let him at least be remembered as the first general in all the world.’
Mьffling looked surprised. ‘Surely you, or Blьcher, might assume that title with just cause, in the wake of Waterloo?’
‘Perhaps. It is customary for the victors to write the history, and on the day I outfought Bonaparte.’ Arthur turned to gaze out of the window. ‘Yet I cannot easily believe that so singular a genius, and so cruel an ambition, will ever release his grip on posterity . . . For my part, I am not sure that I care. I have played my role, served my country, and now I am done with soldiering. Whatever history eventually makes of me, I know that I have earned my peace.’
Author’s Note
It has been an epic tale and, having followed the lives of two of history’s greatest figures, I imagine that many readers will want to know what became of Napoleon and Wellington after their titanic struggle came to an end.
For Napoleon, there remained less than six years of life. He spent these at Longwood House on St Helena, a meagre accommodation for a former emperor. Napoleon continued to be bitter about his imprisonment, perpetually complaining to the governor of the small colony, and writing letters to the British government to demand better conditions and relocation to a less desolate place of exile. When he was not protesting about his captivity, Napoleon set about writing, or rather dictating, his memoirs. These were fabulously partial and depicted Napoleon as an heroic, moral and infallible figure. That his empire had collapsed he put down to the betrayals and incompetence of his subordinates. His enemies were portrayed as foolish and corrupt, and he regarded Wellington with increasing resentment. This was partly because he blamed the Duke for the decision to send him to St Helena (wrongly, since the location was suggested by a civil servant) but mostly because Wellington had beaten Napoleon, as he had beaten the emperor’s best marshals, and thereby demolished their reputation of invincibility.
When he put aside his protests, and his rewriting of history, Napoleon occasionally walked about the small island, always under the watchful eyes of his captors. He ate excessively and put on a great deal of weight. His health began to fail and in 1821 he complained about a sharp pain in his stomach which grew steadily worse as the weeks passed. Napoleon died on 5 May and was buried with full ceremonial honours four days later. His grave was covered over with a plain cement slab and there his body lay until 1840, when it was returned to France and entombed in Les Invalides. The funeral procession was attended by the surviving veterans of the Grand Army, tearfully following their former master to his final resting place.
There is still a debate about the cause of Napoleon’s death. At the time it was said to be cancer, the same fate that had befallen Carlos Buona Parte, Napoleon’s father. More recent tests on samples of Napoleon’s hair revealed the concentrated presence of arsenic, however, and certainly the symptoms noted at the time are consistent with such poisoning. It is possible that the arsenic had been administered in small doses for as long as two years prior to his death and the accumulated affect was fatal. The identity of any poisoner is unknown. Some argue that it was an assassin acting on behalf of the British government, but it is equally likely that it was an agent within Napoleon’s small household, paid to do the deed by the Bourbons.
The report of Napoleon’s death was received with a degree of equanimity in Europe. Despite some hysteria amongst those still loyal to Napoleon, it is Talleyrand’s characteristic response that best sums up the real
