If a word or a sentence could by any possible means be made to appear faulty, a scream of denunciation was sent forth from one end of Europe to the other, but the crime had sunk too deeply into the hearts of an outraged public for these ebullitions to have any real effect.  There might be flaws in diction and even matters of fact, but the sordid reality of the documentary and verbal story that came to them was never doubted.  The big heart of the British nation was beginning to be moved in sympathy towards the martyr long before his death, and of course long before O’Meara’s book appeared, though the doctor’s advent in Europe was made the occasion of a vigorous exposure of the progress of the great assassination.

A wave of public opinion was gathering force; the Government, stupid and treacherous as they were, saw it rising, and renewed their silly efforts to stem it by causing atrocious duplicity to be instituted at home and on the martyr rock.  Indeed, nothing was beneath their dignity so long as they succeeded in deceiving an agitated populace and accomplishing their own evil ends.

But notwithstanding the tactics and the deplorable use made of the traitor Gourgaud, sympathetic feeling increases.  Questions are frequently asked in the House of Commons, to which evasive answers are given, but reaction is so obviously gaining ground that Lords Liverpool, Castlereagh, and the immortal Bathurst become perturbed.  They saw in the accession to power of Lord Holland’s party a complete exposure of their maladministration, and a reversing of their policy (if it be not a libel to distinguish it as a “policy").  They knew, too, that once the public is fairly seized with the idea of a great wrong being perpetrated, no Government, however strong numerically or in personality, can withstand its opposition.  Had the Emperor lived but a little longer, the vindictive men who tormented him to death would have been compelled to give way before not only British, but European, indignation.  Public opinion would have enforced the Administration to deal out better treatment to their captive, have demanded his removal from the island of sorrow, and probably his freedom.  The public may be capricious, but once it makes up its mind to do anything no power on earth can stop it, because it has a greater power behind it.  Luckily, or unluckily, for Bathurst & Co., the spirit of the great captive had passed beyond the portal before serious public action could be taken.

Three years previous to this the Colonial Secretary in writing to Lowe says:—­“We must expect that the removal of Mr. O’Meara will occasion a great sensation, and an attempt will be made to give a bad impression on the subject.  You had better let the substance of my instructions be generally known as soon as you have executed it, that it may not be represented that Mr. O’Meara has been removed in consequence of any quarrel with you, but in consequence of the information furnished by General Gourgaud in England respecting his conduct."[11]