1853.] Napoleon in Adversity. In February, 1818, the ill treatment which Gourgaud experienced induced him to apply for permission to leave the island. He lived miserably, and, to use his own words, like a dog; seldom saw Bonaparte; and having declined to receive 12,000 francs from the ex-Emperor as a pecuniary obligation, was refused a loan of 2007. or 3001. by Bertrand. As he was quite penniless, Sir Hudson Lowe sent him an order on his Own banker, in London for 100Z. The third and last volume contains an account of O'Meara's disobedience of orders-of his expulsion from the mess of the 66th Regiment of the discovery of a clandestine correspondence, implicating Mr. Balcombe and others, -and of his dismissal from the navy. The letter of Mr. Croker, in which the dismissal was conveyed, is an admirable production, and we regret we cannot print it at length. In a letter to the Admiralty, O'Meara had stated that Sir Hudson Lowe had made to him observations on the benefit which would result to Europe from the death of Napoleon, of which event he spoke in a manner which, considering his situation and mine, was peculiarly distressing to me.' It is impossible, says Mr. Croker, to doubt the meaning which this passage was intended to convey, and my lords can as little doubt that the insinuation is a calumnious falsehood; but if it were true, it was your bounden duty not to have lost a moment in communicating it to the Admiral on the spot, to the Secretary of State, or to their Lordships. Either the charge is in the last degree false and calumnious, or you can have no possible excuse for having suppressed it. In either case, my Lords consider you to be an improper person to continue in his Majesty's service, and they have directed your name to be erased from the list of naval surgeons accordingly. There is little new in the account contained in the last volume of the progress of Napoleon's fatal illness and death. On this part of the volume, therefore, it is unnecessary to dwell. When Sir Hudson Lowe 155 was informed of the expected event 1 - Well, gentlemen,' said he to Major Gorrequer and Mr. Henry, 'he was England's greatest enemy, and mine, too; but I forgive him everything. On the death of a great man like him, we should only feel deep concern and regret.' From a perusal of these volumes, we arrive at the conclusion that Napoleon was unequal to the task of bearing adversity with dignity, or even with resignation. He con tended (to use the words of Lamartine, quoted by Mr. Forsyth), with adversity as if it had been a human offence, and in that struggle he resorted to quibble, to trick, to misrepresentation, and falsehood, to make men believe that he was the victim of malice and of persecution. Napoleon was unfortunate in the choice of his companions in exile. They were his mere instruments— the puppets of his will, and they be came accomplices in his system of trickery and deceit. We agree with Mr. Forsyth in thinking that Napoleon outraged Sir H. Lowe with every species of insult. His constant habit was to speak of him in epithets which no gentleman should use, and, we regret to say, with an habitual disregard of truth. As to Sir Hudson Lowe, like most men who have done their duty, and have become unpopular in doing it, he was neglected by the Government he served. The only reward he received was the commandership of the forces at Ceylon. He died in 1814, in the 75th year of his age, and so poor that he left no provision for his unmarried daughter. Under these circumstances, the late Sir R. Peel recommended Miss Lowe for a small pension, which at the time was at his disposal, in recognition of the services of her father. It only remains to us to say that Mr. Forsyth has executed his task with care and circumspection, and, on the whole, very creditably. Now and again the style appears a little pompous and prosy-something like the summing up of a judge in an important case-but the editor is careful and conscientious, though somewhat too judicial in his manner and mode of treatment. MY FIRST NIGHT IN THE JUNGLE. MAN is indeed the creature of circumstance! thought I, as I sat, one evening in July, lounging on a sofa in the handsome drawingroom of my Club, with the current number of Fraser in my hand. Here am I with shiny boots on, reading over a little sketch of one of my last nights in the jungle, and wondering at its fervour as if I had never felt what I there described! Ten to one in another eighteen months I shall again be enjoying meditation and moonlight in a similar situation, and then shall have as great difficulty in realizing this artificial life in London!' And these serious elderly gentlemen around me, who are devouring the evening papers with the assistance of their double glasses, what adventures and hair-breadth 'scapes may they have not passed through in a long career? all forgotten now as though such occurrences had never been. In the reverie occasioned by these reflections, my eyes fixed themselves on a very major-ish elder in a black stock, whom I forthwith divested of his Muftee, and arrayed in scarlet, with sword in hand, at the head of his company, on the 'retreat to Corunna,' when I was abashed to perceive that he was eyeing me over his glasses, as if he thought I had dined; so I retired into the library, carrying my thoughts with me, and commenced this sketch of my first night in the jungle. The country is so dried up at this time of the year that game is always scarce, but the moon is within two days of the full, if you would like to sit up at night, sir? and I know of a little pool about a koss off, in the midst of the jungle, and if it is not dried up yet, you would get many shots there.' Bussassa the Shicaree thus delivered himself to his youthful employer, Ensign Hardbargain, in reply to his lamentations that his first expedition into the jungle would probably be bootless, three out of his five days' leave having expired without having seen anything larger than a Muntjak. * Foot-mark. What! to sit up all night long in the midst of the jungle ?' 'Yes, sir, we do it-we village Shicarees. Before I was regularly taken into service by a gentleman, I lived in the village of Gouldacope, near the pool of water I have been speaking about, and always sat up on moonlight nights by that water. Deer and hog abound, and I generally got a shot at one or the other; sometimes a tiger, bear, or cheetah, came down, but only having my matchlock, I never interfered with them since my brother was killed, five years ago;-he fired at a tiger, which jumped on him, and killed him on the spot.' 'Let us go and see the place, at any rate,' said Hardbargain; and we were on our legs again, and, with guns sloped over our shoulders, and stiffened limbs from a twelve-miles walk over rough ground in intolerably hot weather, walked ourselves supple again. It was about mid-day when we suddenly passed out of the shady forest, and stood on the margin of the pool, or, more properly speaking, puddle. Yes, a large puddle of very dirty water, smelling very much of cattle, and trodden all round and about by innumerable hoofs-cows, buffaloes, calves, sheep, and goats, had all left their marks without number; but among all this kneaded mud, a practised eye would detect the pointed, game-looking pugg* of Samber and spotted deer, marks of a slide on the slippery clay here, and the deep hole there, where the heavy Sing-wallah had sunk up to the knee in the soft mud, while he slaked a two days' thirst. Pigs too, large and small, told the tale of a sounder in the neighbourhood. The fore foot of a hyena, so large and round that it might have been mistaken for a leopard's, was there, but the Shicaree's eye would have known the beast at once for the cowardly hyena, when he looked for the hind foot, and saw it was only half the size, even if the unretractile claw had not left its impression. + Stag carrying antlers. "Yah! here we have a pugg worth looking at last night's- a good span across it; the owner of that had a double object in view here. Well, enough of puggs. Where should we post ourselves for this night-watching?" Here is a circular hole in the ground, about a yard deep. A little straw, and a handful of charcoal ashes, show that some one has spent a night in it-a successful night too, for twelve paces off is a heap of halfdigested grass. A Samber was gralloched there two days ago, and his skin is drying in the village. Why may we not have as much luck? Sir,' said Bussassa, 'I can promise good luck if you will give me half a rupee, and let me go and make Poojah for you to the jungle God. The Dewult is not far off, and a man can be sent back to the tent meanwhile, for some dinner for you.' Hardbargain's Christian scruples against Poojah were great, and Bussassa was as emphatic in favour of that act of propitiation. Bussassa, I am a Christian, and of course don't believe in your jungle God, but if you choose to make Poojah, there is nothing to prevent you.' What is the use of my making Poojah? I am not going to shoot you don't allow me; the man who shoots must make the Poojah, or it is no use. I can make it in your name.' Pooh, pooh! send to the tent at once for a loaf of bread and a bottle of beer-they wont have time to cook anything-and a blanket.' My horse-keeper, who had carried a gun, in company with a villager, started off at once for the tent, which was not more than six miles distant, 'cross country. Bussassa asked leave to go to the village about a mile off, and I was left alone under a clump of bamboos, to enjoy a nap. A nap! a youth of nineteen waiting with impatience for sunset, and the moon to rise, on his first night watching a pool,' would be as much inclined to sleep as he would be at the same age waiting for his sweetheart. 157 Ladies, pardon me-I am a monomaniac. Never did day pass so slowly: the sun appeared stationary, blazing away, just overhead, as it never did since the days of Joshua. As sleep was impossible, I took my gun, jumped into the pit, and rehearsed my part; peering out cautiously, and taking deadly aim at imaginary Samber or hog; and even perhaps presumed to carry out in imagination a shot at a tiger; but when I heard his roars, and thought of the death I had heard of in the morning, I was glad to change him at once, and compound for a more modest prize in the shape of a stag, only a very large one with immense horns. Then, again, I was for the tiger, who should drop dead to the right barrel, but yielded him up again when I remembered that I was a bad shot. If I felt confident, I could shoot, and if not, I could determine not to molest him. At any rate I should like him to come. I would measure the distance from his puggs to the pit-eighteen paces! I think I could kill him at that distance. I had been building castles in the air' till the sun really had got a good slant-half-past four, at least, when Bussassa's long thin legs could be seen among the bamboos, and presently he stalked out from the jungle: a tall, spare, serious, weatherbeaten Shicaree. You could have guessed the history of his life from his appearance. I wish, for the sake of my lady readers (and I flatter myself that I have some), that I could describe his dress: but the truth must be told, and he was almost as naked as truth. He did not rejoice in much that was adventitious-he had a cap on, however, that I am quite certain of, and a waist-belt that supported a very flabby-looking leather pouch, which contained powder, balls, tobacco, and pawn-soparee. Hewas, as I said before, a weatherbeaten man, with a close-fitting leather skull-cap, deep furrows down his cheeks, and crows' feet round his eyes, the effects of years spent contending with the fierce glare of a tropical sun. A restless eye ever running along the ground, through To offer sacrifice. + Sacred edifice. Betel-nut leaf and quicklime, for chewing. VOL. XLVIII. NO. CCLXXXIV. L the trees, or along the sides of the distant hills; a wide awake eye, in short. Neither beard nor whisker had he, but as compensation for the absence of these signs of virility, he petted a pair of the most gigantic iron grey moustaches, which curled up and round again in a way that would strike envy and astonishment to the heart of the most ferocious militia officer in England. I can remember nothing else remarkable in the appearance of Bussassa, except that his knees slightly knuckled over through the wear and tear of time and excessive exercise and the calves of his legs, such as they were, for the same reasons had got up just behind the knee, under which the leg was of the same thickness to the ancle-he had a tendency also to go in the tendon-Achilles: but notwithstanding these slight blemishes, a band of linen tied tight round each ancle to comfort these back sinews, and a sash bound tightly about his loins, few gentlemen now after the grouse in the Highlands would be able to walk with Bussassa of Dharwar, as he was in the days I write of. We walked into the shade, and sat down on a bank of hard red clay, carpetted an inch thick with dry bamboo leaves: I to examine the workmanship of Bussassa's matchlock, and he to smoke, out of a pipe made on the spot of a teak leaf, which he curled up into a funnel, and charged with tobacco from the pouch. I handed him a cap, which he placed on a stone with a little bit of old rag round it, and a pinch of gunpowder, and giving it a smart tap with another stone, the rag was smoking, and the pipe ignited from it. If ever man enjoyed the weed, it was Bussassa-he appeared to drink it; with both his hands round his mouth and pipe, he guarded the escape of the fragrant smoke with jealous care. Two little white columns poured out of his nostrils, and the leaf was exhausted and cast away. While this operation was going on, I had his matchlock in my hands, which, for the sake of my gun-admiring reader, I will describe. Imprimis, it was rather longer than a garden-rake, bound to the stock at three equal distances along the barrel by bands of iron, slightly bellmouthed, gauge twenty. The pan, for it was not on the percussion principle be it remembered, was formed on a large dab of black beeswax plastered on the side of the stock where the lock should be, and embossed all over with red seeds. The touch-hole was guarded, and the powder in the pan preserved by another little dot of wax, which could be removed when the gun was to be fired. The cock and trigger were one piece of iron in the shape of an S, which went through the stock perpendicularly behind the barrel, and worked on a pin running through from side to side, as the screw does that holds our lock plates. The upper end of the S was split, and held in its jaws the match, a piece of cotton cord saturated with nitre. It was an uncomfortable-looking gun, but Bussassa was attached to it, and declared it could kill an elephant. As it wanted an hour and a half of sun-set, and we had nothing to do, Bussassa proposed that we should go and see the 'Dewul,' the residence of the jungle god, who was by all accounts a perfect brick to Shicarees who treated him civilly-a present of a cocoa-nut and bunch of plantains always ensuring a shot at hog or deer. Moreover, there was a tigerish nullah he wanted to show me, where he had sat up and killed a tiger from a tree last year: and by the time we came back the horsekeeper would have arrived with the things he was sent for. A quarter of an hour's walk along a winding cattle path brought us to the reedy banks of a dry watercourse, which we descended; a cool but gloomy spot, even when the sun was high, for the overhanging banks were lined with tall bamboos, which nearly met overhead: but at this hour of the day, with a slanting evening sun, its silence and gloom were most impressive. The bed of the nullah was irregular and sandy, out of which at intervals the bare rock appeared, forming here and there natural basins. One of them still held water, although choked with decaying masses of dead leaves. We surprised a peacock with a gaudy train, who was drinking: he 1853.] A comforting Story of a Tiger. startled us as much as we frightened him, when he sprang up, beating the still air with his heavy wings. Even the little birds here appeared timid; everything alive was on its guard, all eyes and ears, feeling the influence of the place. Nor was it a neighbourhood to loiter in: the two figures that moved round the water carried their guns at the ready, and shortly disappeared as they came in silence. A few minutes more along the cattle-path brought us to a clear spot, where another path crossed, and at the junction of the four, under a tamarind tree, I was introduced to the divinity. The Dewul was formed of four large slabs of stone, one forming the back, two the sides, and the fourth covering it in. A raised dais of baked clay occupied the back of this kennel, and on the dais Sawmy himself was respectfully pointed out to me. I could not see the idol very distinctly, but it appeared to me much the size of a monkey. He was very black and very shiny; round his neck he wore a wreath of -no, they were a kind of marigold. At his feet were deposited a bunch of plantains, and a broken cocoanut. Bussassa went down flat on his face, and cried out in a lugubrious voice Huniman.' As I did not wish him to see me laughing, I turned my back, and strolled slowly away; he joined me almost immediately, and we made the best of our way home to the water. 6 We were disappointed on our return to find no signs of the people from the tent. Bussassa relieved his feelings with another teak-leaf of tobacco, and to encourage me for an interview with a tiger gave me the particulars of his brother's death. 'You see those stones there, built in a circle, on the bank opposite, under that old tree? That was the place he was killed in-no one has ever sat there since. I was sitting with him. It was on the night of a full moon. The tiger was moving round the water, and came right towards us-he either saw or smelt us, for when about three paces off, he stood, and began to growl: my brother fired, and I scrambled out of the pit, as the 159 tiger fixed his teeth in my brother's neck. I spent the rest of that night up a tree, and was very ill and mad next day. This scar on my leg was done then.' All this was told with the most absurd sang froid, considering that he was sitting within sight of the spot; but Shicarees are real philosophers. The cattle are coming to drink,' said Bussassa in explanation, as the short grunting bellow of buffaloes, bleating of sheep and goats, and the noise of many running quadrupeds fell upon the ear: and out of an opening in the jungle, on the other side of the water, poured a living stream of thirsty cattle and goats. The buffs threw up their noses and stood motionless when they caught sight of us, and then twirling round, cocked their tails, and rushed headlong away, crashing through every impediment like wild things. The two herdsmen, who were singing loudly in the jungle, as they brought up the rear of their charge, were silenced in a moment, making sure the cattle had seen a tiger; but Bussassa calling out explained the case, while the buffaloes, who had wheeled round again at a respectful distance, advanced slowly and hesitatingly, with their heads up and horns back, squinting down their noses at us most ominously. Confidence was restored when their guardians came up, and I looked begrudgingly on them as they occupied the whole pool, and bid fair to suck it dry. The herdsmen and Bussassa were holding a conference, when I was gratified by the approach of my horsekeeper and the village man, who were coming along at a round trot to show their zeal. The horsekeeper unfastened the blanket which was tied round his shoulders, from which fell a towel, containing a bottle of beer, a small loaf of bread, and an English letter! which had been forwarded by an attentive friend in cantonment. Yes, an English letter, crossed and recrossed, from a dear relative. Shicaree as I was, I retired for the moment, and greedily devoured its contents, and my mind was in England again. Mothers and sisters will understand this. |