4-3-4265 Farla 13 Jughar 1-20-42 A VOICE FROM ST. HELENA. 21st April, 1817.-NAPOLEON has been for some days in very good spirits. On Saturday, the 19th, several captains of East Indiamen came to see Count and Countess Bertrand. Captains Innes, Campbell, and Ripsley, with Mr. Webb, stationed themselves at the back of the house in such a situation as to be likely to see Napoleon on his return from Bertrand's, where he had gone about four o'clock. Napoleon beckoned to, and conversed with them for nearly an hour, during which time he asked many questions respecting India, the East India Company, Lord Moira, their own profits, &c.; and to the commodore, who had a very youthful appearance, in a laughing manner he observed, that he was a child, and ought to be ashamed of commanding captains so much older than himself. Asked the emperor whether it was at Lodi or Arcola that he had seized the standard, and precipitated himself among the enemy's troops. He replied, "at Arcola, not Lodi. At Arcola I was slightly wounded; but at Lodi no such circumstance occurred. Why do you ask? Do you think me lâche?" said he, laughing. I begged to assure him of my thorough conviction of the contrary, which was too well known to be doubted; and that it was merely to solve a difference of opinion that had arisen between some of us English who had not the means of procuring at St. Helena any books to satisfy us at which of the two it happened, that I had taken the liberty to ask him. "Those things," said he, with a smile, "are not worth mentioning." Had a long conversation with him on medical subjects. He appeared to entertain an idea that in cases purely the province of the physician, the patient has an equal chance of being despatched to the other world, either by the doctor mistaking the complaint, or by the remedies administered operating in a different manner from what was intended and expected, and was for trusting entirely to nature. With respect to surgery, he professed a far different opinion, and acknowledged the great utility of that science. I endeavoured to convince him, that in some complaints, nature was a bad physician, and mentioned in proof of my argument |