Читать книгу The Life, Exile and Conversations with Napoleon - Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné Las Cases - Страница 105

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20th.—The weather had been extremely bad. The Emperor had been rather unwell the whole of the night, but felt himself much better in the morning. He did not leave his room before five o’clock. About six we took advantage of a gleam of fine weather to drive round the park in the calash. The horses which have been provided for us are vicious; they shy at the first object that comes in their way, and become restive. They stood still several times during our drive. The rain, indeed, had rendered the roads very heavy, and at one time it required all our efforts to obviate the necessity of returning on foot. The Grand Marshal and General Gourgaud were in one instance obliged to alight and put their shoulders to the wheel. At length, after a great deal of trouble we reached home. The conversation, during our drive, turned on the Island of Elba. The Emperor spoke of the roads he had made, and the houses he had built, which the best painters of Italy begged, as a favour, to be permitted to adorn with their works.

The Emperor observed that his flag had become the first in the Mediterranean. It was held sacred, he said, by the Barbary ships, who usually made presents to the Elba Captains, telling them that they were paying the debt of Moscow. The Grand Marshal told us that some Barbary ships, having anchored off the Island of Elba, had caused great alarm among the inhabitants, who questioned the pirates with regard to their intentions, and ended by asking them plainly whether they came with any hostile views.—“Against the Great Napoleon!” said the Algerines: “Oh! never ... we do not wage war against God!”

Whenever the flag of the Island of Elba entered any of the ports of the Mediterranean, Leghorn excepted, it was received with loud acclamations: all the national feeling seemed to return. The crews of some French ships from Britanny and Flanders, which touched at the Island of Elba, testified the same sentiment.

“Every thing is judged by comparison in this world,” said the Emperor; “the Island of Elba, which, a year ago, was thought so disagreeable, is a paradise compared to St. Helena. As for this island, it may set all future regret at defiance.”