Throughout his time at Longwood he never went outside after dark, so as
not to see the sentries Lowe insisted on posting there at night.
On 17 March a serious deterioration was noticed in the Emperor's
condition. Fearing that the end might be near, he told Bertrand that he
hoped the English would not use him as a prize exhibit by burying him in
Westminster Abbey. Although he spent much time on St Helena musing
on religion and its psychology, he told Bertrand that he did not want the
bogus consolations of Catholicism when the time came. 'I am quite happy
not to have religion. I do not suffer from chimerical fears.' His fears
seemed to be of another kind. On 15 April he added new codicils to his
bequests and signed his last will and testament, of which Paragraph Five
read: 'My death is premature. I have been assassinated by the English
oligarchy and their hired murderer. The English people will not be long
in avenging me.'
The course of Napoleon's illness throughout April I82I may be briefly
charted. On the fourth of the month his symptoms were a steeply rising
and falling temperature, profuse sweating, coughing, a slow pulse,
blackish vomit and a distended abdomen which suggested perforation.
After five days of remission between 6--r I April, the symptoms recurred,
with vomiting, nausea, copious sweats and high temperature at night. On
25 April his medical attendants noted flecks of black, like coffee dregs
streaked with blood, in the substance coughed up. On I April Napoleon,
who had no confidence in Antommarchi, consented to see Dr Archibald
Arnott, a British army surgeon. Arnott, mindful of Lowe's standing
instructions that no diagnosis ofBonaparte's ailments could be allowed to
redound to the discredit of the British, and remembering the fate of
O'Meara and Stokoe, reported that he could find nothing wrong and that
Napoleon was faking. As late as 23 April Arnott reported: 'Convalescence
will be long and difficult, but he is not in danger.'
On 27 April the fever got worse and Napoleon became delirious, with a
rising temperature, shivering fits and a convulsive hiccup. He refused to
see any more doctors, saying he had had enough of the pain that resulted
fr om their treatments. By the 29th he could no longer recognize those at
his bedside. He asked for Bertrand, not realizing he was standing there.
Bertrand wrote in his journal: 'Tears came into my eyes when I saw this
man - who had been so feared, who had so proudly commanded, so
absolutely - beg for a spoonful of coffee, ask for permission to have it; not
obtaining what he had asked for, but asking for it again and again, always
without success but also without any display of bad temper. At other
times in his illness he had sent his doctors packing, ignored their
instructions and done what he wished. At present he was as docile as a
marcin
(Marcin)
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