Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/407

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Napoleon's Last Voyages.
391

Napoleon always kept a friendly recollection of Admiral Ussher; one can see in these sentences the origin of the feeling.

IV.

DEPARTURE FOR ELBA.

It was characteristic of the desire of France to get rid of Napoleon that Ussher was woke up at four o'clock in the morning after he had dined with Napoleon, "by two of the principal inhabitants," "who had come into my room to implore me to embark the Emperor as quickly as possible," intelligence having been received that the army of Italy, lately under the command of Eugène Beauharnais, was broken up; that the soldiers were entering France in large bodies.

These fears were not, apparently, altogether groundless, for Ussher observed that Napoleon "was in no hurry to quit the shores of France." Under the circumstances, Ussher was requested by the representatives of the Powers to gently force the Emperor to leave, and this he did with much combined firmness and tact:

"I demanded an interview, and pointed out to the Emperor the uncertainty of winds, and the difficulty I should have in landing in the boats should the wind change to the southward and drive in a swell upon the beach, which, from the present appearance of the weather, would in all proba-