The drama of Saint Helena . ot have con-sidered the escape of Napoleon impossible ? The Emperor inhabits a plateau, sheer on everyside, that only communicates with the rest of SaintHelena by an isthmus twenty feet wide or byravines, and with the sea only by dizzy guard-house bars the isthmus ; patrols cut off accessto the ravines ; and sentinels intercept the the plateau itself, a camp keeps watch overLongwood House. A hundred men are placedalong the four miles enclosure during the day. Atnight the circle of bayonets contracts, closes inaround Napoleon ; between them are i
The drama of Saint Helena . ot have con-sidered the escape of Napoleon impossible ? The Emperor inhabits a plateau, sheer on everyside, that only communicates with the rest of SaintHelena by an isthmus twenty feet wide or byravines, and with the sea only by dizzy guard-house bars the isthmus ; patrols cut off accessto the ravines ; and sentinels intercept the the plateau itself, a camp keeps watch overLongwood House. A hundred men are placedalong the four miles enclosure during the day. Atnight the circle of bayonets contracts, closes inaround Napoleon ; between them are intervals ofbut a few yards for flight. The coast where the Emperor would be obligedto embark is equally well guarded. A sentry-boxand a red-coat are to be seen at the edge of everycreek. Armed cutters follow each other in an end-less round at the foot of the cliffs and allow noskiff to approach. Farther off, two brigs, fastsailers, continually circumvent the island, bent ondiscovering and giving chase to suspicious THE GOVERNOR. HUDSON LOWE 51 Had Napoleon succeeded in putting out to sea,it must be remembered that the nearest point ofthe African coast is 1140 miles away, the coastof America 1808 miles. Could he possibly havecovered either of these distances without beingr o overtaken ? And to what purpose ? To live inMozambique, among the negroes, or in Brazil,where a prince of the House of Braganza wasreigning ? Again, would he have crossed theAtlantic obliquely, and thus doubled, tripled thedifficult voyage, in order to land in La Plata, orthe United States ? In La Plata, a second-ratepower only just born to independence, the sovereignsof Europe would have pursued and reclaimed the United States he might perhaps have founda safe place of refuge, but he was convinced thatthe Bourbons would have had him assassinated. Escape, moreover, always implies means—dis-guises and various wiles, of a somewhat trivialnature—which were repugnant to the Emperor,as being
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnapoleo, bookyear1910
