Longwood

Definition and stakes

comte de Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné Las Cases,  Memoirs of the life, exile, and conversations of the Emperor Napoleon…

“ You had the candour to tell me that 230you could not permit me and the individuals at Longwood to combine our ideas; or, in other words, to ascertain our real wishes. You have, doubtless, very good reasons for this. I say nothing against it; only I cannot suffer myself to be duped, or to be the means of leading into error those who take an interest in my fate.
“You“You are too advantageously situated, Sir, between Longwood and me; and if I must write to Count Bertrand, not my own sentiments, but what you may think proper to dictate, I decline holding any communication with him.
”
Source: Gutenberg

Fanny Parkes Parlby,  Wanderings of a pilgrim in search of the picturesque… (1850)

“ We had grapes, peaches, and pears, all inferior, very inferior to the fruit at the Cape. After tiffin we proceeded to Longwood, and passed several very picturesque points on the road. Around Longwood there are more trees, and the appearance of the country is less desolate than in other parts of the island. We were first taken to the old house in which the emperor lived; it is a wretched place, and must ever have been the same. The room into which you enter was used as a billiard-room: the dining-room and the study are wretched holes. The emperor’s bed-room and bath is now a stable. ”
Source: Gutenberg

Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne,  Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte…

“ He soon grew fond of his new employment, and pressed all the inhabitants of Longwood into the service. Even the ladies had great difficulty to avoid being set to work. He laughed at them, urged them, entreated them, and used all his arts of persuasion, particularly with Madame Bertrand. He assured her that the exercise of gardening was much better than all the doctor's prescriptions—that it was in fact one of his prescriptions. ”
Source: Gutenberg

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