alternated insomnia at night with drowsiness by day. He told O'Meara he
suspected the British of poisoning him.
The curious cycle of good health and sudden illness continued
throughout 1817: he was ill with the same symptoms in February and
March, then had six weeks of health, and then relapsed with the same old
maladies. Two months of rude health in July and August were followed
by a fu rther valetudinarian period in September. It was remarked that he
was frequently thirsty and was forever drinking lemon juice; the intake of
vitamin C meant that his symptoms could not have indicated scurvy,
with which all his ailments were otherwise compatible. Other medical
observers are positive that he suffered from amoebic dysentery, that an
abscess formed on his liver - a not uncommon consequence of the disease
- and that this drained into the lungs, chest, stomach and peritoneum,
causing secondary problems in those areas. This would explain some of
the symptoms - shooting pains, coughing, nausea, vomiting - but by no
means all of them. Whatever the explanation, after 1817 the Emperor's
health gradually worsened.
For other reasons, too, Longwood was a 'restless house' - the cockpit
of bitter intrigues and jealousies among the members of Bonaparte's
'court'. The patient, tireless plotter who took the long view, the Aramis
of the piece, was Montholon, but in the early years he bided his time,
allowing the mercurial Gourgaud the centre stage. In the first year of
exile on St Helena Las Cases was so obviously the Emperor's favourite
that Gourgaud fumed and sulked; there was clearly a homosexual element
in Gourgaud's feelings for Napoleon, for in his journals he refers to him
as 'she'. But Las Cases was arrested by Hudson Lowe in November 1816
when it was discovered that he had smuggled secret correspondence out
of the island; deportation swiftly followed. Some observers have
suspected Las Cases of 'setting up' his own apprehension, as he was tired
of exile; it is certainly striking that he refused to return to Longwood on a
promise of good behaviour, as offered by Lowe.
Las Cases's departure partly answered Lowe's demand for a reduction
in the staff at Longwood, but fu rther dismissals were necessitated by
Bathurst's imposed quota, and among the first to depart was Santini. On
arrival in London Santini went to Lord Holland and gave him a fu ll
picture of life at Longwood, as well as a smuggled copy of Napoleon's
Remontrance, which Holland worked up into a very effective pamphlet
entitled Appeal to the English Nation. Napoleon consoled himself, on the
departure of his favourite Las Cases, that he too would be effective in the
propaganda effort being mounted on his behalf in Europe.
With Las Cases gone and Bertrand, to Napoleon's annoyance,