Note AC — Chapter XI · LIFE IN EXILE.

The Emperor was very desirous that his correspondence with the allied sovereigns should be published. He wrote to Joseph from Saint Helena to secure their publication in the United States if possible. "It will be the best response," he said, "to all the calumnies which have been uttered against me." During Joseph's sojourn in England, he learned from Dr. O'Meara that the autograph originals of these letters addressed by Napoleon to the sovereigns had been offered for sale in London in the year 1822; that they had been in the hands of Mr. Murray, a well-known publisher; that the letters relating to Russia had been purchased by a diplomatic agent of that power for ten thousand pounds sterling. There was no longer any hope of obtaining them, since they were in the hands of those interested in having them destroyed.—Mémoires et Correspondence, Politique et Militaire du Roi Joseph, tome dixième, n. 231.