The instructions of the English Ministers with regard to the treatment of Napoleon at St. Helena had been prepared with the view completely to secure his person.  An English officer was to be constantly at his table.  This order, however, was not carried into effect.  An officer was also to accompany Napoleon in all his rides; this order was dispensed with within certain prescribed limits, because Napoleon had refused to ride at all on such conditions.  Almost everyday brought with it some new cause of uneasiness and complaint.  Sentinels were posted beneath Napoleon’s windows and before his doors.  This order was, however, doubtless given to prevent his being annoyed by impertinent curiosity.  The French were certainly precluded from all free communication with the inhabitants of the island; but this precaution was of unquestionable necessity for the security of the Emperor’s person.  Las Cases complains that the passwords were perpetually changed, so that they lived in constant perplexity and apprehension of being subjected to some unforeseen insult.  “Napoleon,” he continues, “addressed a complaint to the Admiral, which obtained for him no redress.  In the midst of these complaints the Admiral wished to introduce some ladies (who had arrived in the Doric) to Napoleon; but he declined, not approving this alternation of affronts and civilities.”  He, however, consented, at the request of their Colonel, to receive the officers of the 53d Regiment.  After this officer took his leave.  Napoleon prolonged his walk in the garden.  He stopped awhile to look at a flower in one of the beds, and asked his companion if it was not a lily.  It was indeed a magnificent one.  The thought that he had in his mind was obvious.  He then spoke of the number of times he had been wounded; and said it had been thought he had never met with these accidents from his having kept them secret as much as possible.’

It was near the end of December.  One day, after a walk and a tumble in the mud, Bonaparte returned and found a packet of English newspapers, which the Grand-Marshal translated to him.  This occupied him till late, and he forgot his dinner in discussing their contents.  After dinner had been served Las Cases wished to continue the translation, but Napoleon would not suffer him to proceed, from consideration for the weak state of his eyes.  “We must wait till to-morrow,” said he.  A few days afterwards the Admiral came in person to visit him, and the interview was an agreeable one.  After some animated discussion it was arranged that Napoleon should henceforth ride freely about the island; that the officer should follow him only at a distance; and that visitors should be admitted to him, not with the permission of the Admiral as the Inspector of Longwood, but with that of the Grand-Marshal, who was to do the honours of the establishment.  These concessions were, however, soon recalled.  On the 30th of this month Piontkowsky, a Pole; who had been left behind, but whose entreaties prevailed upon the English Government, joined Bonaparte.  On New-Year’s Day all their little party was collected together, and Napoleon, entering into the feelings of the occasion, begged that they might breakfast and pass it together.  Every day furnished some new trait of this kind.