The Life of Napoleon I Part 81

[Footnote 590: "Colonial Office Records," St. Helena, No. 32; Henry, "Events of a Military Life," vol. ii., pp. 80-84: h also states that Antommarchi, when about to sign the report agreed on by the English doctors, was called aside by Bertrand and Montholon, and thereafter declined to sign it: Antommarchi afterwards issued one of his own, laying stress on cancer _and enlarged liver_, thus keeping up O'Meara's theory that the illness was due to the climate of St. Helena and want of exercise. In our records is a letter of Montholon to his wife of May 6th, 1821, which admits the contrary: "C'est dans notre malheur une grande consolation pour nous d'avoir acquis la preuve que sa mort n'est, et n'a pu etre, en aucune maniere le resultat de sa captivite." Yet, on his return to Europe, Montholon stoutly maintained that the liver complaint endemic to St. Helena had been the death of his master. It is, however, noteworthy that on his death-bed Napoleon urged Bertrand to be reconciled to Lowe. He and Montholon accordingly went to Plantation House, where, according to all appearance, the dead past was buried.]