Napoleon at St. Helena—­The Briars—­Longwood—­Charges against the English Government respecting his accommodations and treatment at St. Helena—­Charges against the Governor, Sir Hudson Lowe—­Napoleon’s mode of life at Longwood—­His Health falls off—­His Death and Funeral—­Conclusion.

Napoleon was weary of shipboard, and, therefore, landed immediately.  Finding the curiosity of the people troublesome, he took up his quarters at The Briars, a small cottage about half a mile from James’s Town, during the interval which must needs elapse before the admiral could provide suitable accommodation for his permanent residence.  For that purpose Longwood, a villa about six miles from James’s Town, was, after an examination of all that the island afforded, determined on; except Plantation House, the country residence of the governor, there was no superior house in St. Helena; and two months having been employed diligently in some additions and repairs, the fallen Emperor took possession of his appointed abode on the 10th of December.  The very limited accommodation of the Briars (where, indeed, Napoleon merely occupied a pavilion of two chambers in the garden of a Mr. Balcombe), had hitherto prevented him from having, all his little suite of attendants under the same roof with him.  They were now re-assembled at Longwood, with the exception of M. and Mme. Montholon, who occupied a separate house at some little distance from it.  While at The Briars, Napoleon made himself eminently agreeable to the family of the Balcombes, particularly the young ladies and children, and submitted on the whole with temper and grace to the inconveniences of narrow accommodation in-doors, and an almost total want of exercise abroad—­this last evil occasioned wholly by his own reluctance to ride out in the neighbourhood of the town.  He continued also to live on terms of perfect civility with Sir George Cockburn; and, notwithstanding some occasional ebullitions of violence, there seemed to be no reason for doubting that, when fairly established with his suite about him, he would gradually reconcile himself to the situation in which he was likely to remain, and turn his powerful faculties upon some study or pursuit worthy of their energy, and capable of cheating captivity of half its bitterness.  These anticipations were not realised.

The accusations brought by the prisoner and his instruments against the government of England, in regard to the accommodations at Longwood, the arrangements concerning the household establishment, and the regulations adopted with a view to the security of his person, have been so often answered in detail, that we may spare ourselves the pain of dwelling on transactions little worthy of filling a large space in the story of Napoleon.  It being granted that it was necessary to provide against the evasion of Buonaparte; that the protracted separation from him of his wife and son (not, at any rate, the