From this moment it does not appear that Napoleon showed any signs of understanding what was going forward around him.  His weakness increased every moment, and a harassing hiccough continued until death took place.  The day before that event a fearful tempest threatened to destroy everything about Longwood.  The plantations were torn up by the roots, and it was particularly remarked that a willow, under which Napoleon usually sat to enjoy the fresh air, had fallen.  “It seemed,” says Antommarchi, “as if none of the things the Emperor valued were to survive him.”  On the day of his death Madame Bertrand, who had not left his bedside, sent for her children to take a last farewell of Napoleon.  The scene which ensued was affecting:  the children ran to the bed, kissed the hands of Napoleon, and covered them with tears.  One of the children fainted, and all had to be carried from the spot.  “We all,” says Antommarchi, “mixed our lamentations with theirs:  we all felt the same anguish, the same cruel foreboding of the approach of the fatal instant, which every minute accelerated.”  The favourite valet, Noverraz, who had been for some time very ill, when he heard of the state in which Napoleon was, caused himself to be carried downstairs, and entered the apartment in tears.  He was with great difficulty prevailed upon to leave the room:  he was in a delirious state, and he fancied his master was threatened with danger, and was calling upon him for assistance:  he said he would not leave him but would fight and die for him.  But Napoleon was now insensible to the tears of his servants; he had scarcely spoken for two days; early in the morning he articulated a few broken sentences, among which the only words distinguishable were, “tete d’armee,” the last that ever left his lips, and which indicated the tenor of his fancies.  The day passed in convulsive movements and low moanings, with occasionally a loud shriek, and the dismal scene closed just before six in the evening.  A slight froth covered his lips, and he was no more.

After he had been dead about six hours Antommarchi had the body carefully washed and laid out on another bed.  The executors then proceeded to examine two codicils which were directed to be opened immediately after the Emperor’s decease.  The one related to the gratuities which he intended out of his private purse for the different individuals of his household, and to the alms which he wished to be distributed among the poor of St. Helena; the other contained his last wish that “his ashes should repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people whom he had loved so well.”  The executors notified this request to the Governor, who stated that his orders were that the body was to, remain on the island.  On the next day, after taking a plaster cast of the face of Napoleon, Antommarchi proceeded to open the body in the presence of Sir Thomas Reade, some staff officers, and eight medical men.

The Emperor had intended his hair (which was of a chestnut colour) for presents to the different members of his family, and it was cut off and kept for this purpose.