letter the cast-iron instructions given to him by Bathurst. The
Emperor spoke of him as having the heart of a soldier, and regretted
his removal to give place to Sir Hudson Lowe, who arrived in the
_Phaeton_ on April 14, 1816.

The new Governor's rude, senseless conduct on the occasion of his
first visit to Longwood indicated forebodings of trouble. He does not
appear to have had the slightest notion of how to behave, or that he
was about to be introduced to a man who had completely governed the
destinies of Europe for twenty years. Napoleon with his eagle eye and
penetrating vision measured the man's character and capabilities at a
glance. He said to his friends, "That man is malevolent; his eye is
that of a hyena." Subsequent events only intensified this belief.

Perhaps the best that can be said of Lowe is that he possessed
distorted human intelligence. He was amiable when he pleased, a good
business man, so it is said, and the domestic part of his life has
never been assailed; but it would be a libel on all decency to say
that he was suited to the delicate and responsible post he was sent to
fulfil. In fact, all his actions prove him to have been without an
atom of tact, judgment, or administrative quality, and his nature had
a big unsympathetic flaw in it. The fact is, there are indications
that his nature was warped from the beginning, and that he was just
the very kind of man who ought never to have been sent to a post of
such varied responsibilities. His appointment shows how appallingly
ignorant or wicked the Government, or Bathurst, were in their
selection of him.

He was a monomaniac pure and simple. If they thought him best suited
to pursue a policy of vindictiveness, then their choice was perfect,