The Capture of Napoleon
A British Commentary
Chapter 25


Our paper of this day will satisfy the sceptics, for such there were beginning to be, as to the capture of that bloody miscreant, who has so long tortured Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte. Savages are always found to unite the greatest degree of cunning to the ferocious part of their nature. The cruelty of this person is written in characters of blood in almost every country in Europe and in the contiguous angles of Africa and Asia which he visited; and nothing can more strongly evince the universal conviction of his low, perfidious craft, than the opinion, which was beginning to get abroad, that, even after his capture had been officially announced both in France and England, he might yet have found means to escape. . . .

Bonaparte's suite, as it is called, consists of upward of forty persons, among whom are Bertrand, Savary, Lallemand, Grogau and several women. He has been allowed to take on board carriages and horses, but admission was denied to about fifty cavalry, for whom he had the impudence to require accommodation. This wretch has really lived in the commission of every crime so long that he has lost all sight and knowledge of the difference that exists between good and evil, and hardly knows when he is doing wrong except he be taught by proper chastisement. A creature who ought to be greeted with a gallows as soon as he lands, --to think of an attendance of fifty horsemen! He had at first wanted to make conditions with Captain Maitland as to his treatment, but the British officer very properly declared that he must refer him upon this subject to his government.

From E. P. Cheney, Readings in English History, New York: Ginn and Company, 1908, pp. 660-661. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

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