body and delicacy of his hands; but “never mind,” said he, “I have always accustomed my body to bend to my will, and I shall bring it to do so now, and inure it to the exercise.”  He soon grew fond of his new employment, and pressed all the inhabitants of Longwood into the service.  Even the ladies had great difficulty to avoid being set to work.  He laughed at them, urged them, entreated them, and used all his arts of persuasion, particularly with Madame Bertrand.  He assured her that the exercise of gardening was much better than all the doctor’s prescriptions—­that it was in fact one of his prescriptions.  But in this instance his eloquence failed in its effect, and he was obliged, though with much reluctance, to desist from his attempts to make lady gardeners.

But in recompense he had willing labourers on the part of the gentlemen.  Antommarchi says, “The Emperor urged us, excited us, and everything around us soon assumed a different aspect.  Here was an excavation, there a basin or a road.  We made alleys, grottoes, cascades; the appearance of the ground had now some life and diversity.  We planted willows, oaks, peach-trees, to give a little shade round the house.  Having completed the ornamental part of our labours we turned to the useful.  We divided the ground, we manured it, and sowed it with abundance of beans, peas, and every vegetable that grows in the island.”  In the course of their labours they found that a tank would be of great use to hold water, which might be brought by pipes from a spring at a distance of 3000 feet.

For this laborious attempt it was absolutely necessary to procure additional forces, and a party of Chinese, of whom there are many on the island, was engaged to help them.  These people were much amused at Napoleon’s working-dress, which was a jacket and large trousers, with an enormous straw hat to shield him from the sun, and sandals.  He pitied those poor fellows who suffered from the heat of the sun, and made each of them a present of a large hat like his own.  After much exertion the basin was finished, the pipes laid, and the water began to flow into it.  Napoleon stocked his pond with gold-fish, which he placed in it with his own hands.  He would remain by the pond for hours together, at a time when he was so weak that he could hardly support himself.  He would amuse himself by following the motion of the fishes, throwing bread to them, studying their ways, taking an interest in their loves and their quarrels, and endeavouring with anxiety to find out points of resemblance between their motives and those of mankind.  He often sent for his attendants to communicate his remarks to them, and directed their observations to any peculiarities he had observed.  His favourites at last sickened, they struggled, floated on the water, and died one after another.  He was deeply affected by this, and remarked to Antommarchi, “You see very well that there is a fatality attached to me.  Everything I love, everything that helongs to me, is immediately struck:  heaven and mankind unite to persecute me.”  From this time he visited them daily in spite of sickness or bad weather, nor did his anxiety diminish until it was discovered that a coppery cement, with which the bottom of the basin was plastered, had poisoned the water.  The fish which were not yet dead were then taken out and put into a tub.