In the first, dated July and August of 1816, an informant spilled the beans on John Robinson, one of Napoleon’s neighbours near Longwood, called by Gourgaud a “simple peasant”. Mr Robinson is known to posterity as the father of “the Nymph”, the attractive (but in a spiritual way) Mary Ann Robinson, who figures frequently in Gourgaud’s memoirs and has a brief cameo role in the Mémorial and in Warden’s letters. Napoleon likewise would appear to have thought her beautiful. The name of the informant? ‘J’, identified by Lowe as an officer in the 66th regiment, (Forsyth, Captivity, vol. 2, p. 463 – captain John Dudley Jordan?) lodging at Mason’s Stock House. Notes from the informant came to the Governor.
‘J’ invited John up to his lodgings, who arrived at the early hour of midday! So, they decided to go for a walk down to the coast. On their return to Miss Mason’s, the informant pumped Robinson for information about Bonaparte, getting him drunk. By then significantly ‘in his cups’, John volunteered some interesting titbits: that the Emperor came up to John’s house “almost every day” (to quote John himself) and that he spoke good English (John must have been very drunk…). Napoleon had also saved one of John’s cows that had fallen into a ditch. John also laid out his theory that it would be difficult for the governor to mobilise the troops on the island and that Napoleon could be whisked away before daylight via a little-frequented valley. “J” tried to convince him otherwise, to no avail.
Later that day, John raised his glass to “Bonaparte” with the toast “may he live five years”, to which ‘J’ assented since, because of the fallen Emperor’s presence on the island, he was on full- and not half-pay. John drank some more and began to assert that he could help Napoleon escape and with that would make his fortune (he mentioned a large solid gold candlestick that would apparently be his reward), basically asking ‘J’ if he was “in”? At which point, ‘J’ told John he was being disloyal and walked him off the premises, to which John, by now “excessively drunk”, hurled back “I am the man who will take Him off the island”.
John Robinson’s next report to ‘J’ concerned the money Napoleon kept doling out to the underclasses. Napoleon in exile seems to have made a habit of tipping the servants. A year earlier, the very day he arrived on Northumberland from Bellerophon, after an unsuccessful game of Pontoon (at which he had lost 5 Napoleons) he left three Napoleons under the candlestick for the servants. On St Helena he continued this practice, but this time also with the slaves. According to John, Napoleon gave not just 1 Napoleon to Robinson’s son but: 1 Dollar (equivalent to 4 ½ shillings) to “slave girl Betty for bringing him a glass of water”; 1 dollar to “Slave Will for breaking down a wall for his horse to pass over”; 1 dollar to “slave Dick for opening a gate”; and 1 dollar to “Susannah for removing a small piece [of] furze out of the road”. He also gave: 1 Napoleon to John Legg’s son; 1 dollar to John Legg’s “slave, March, for opening a Gate”; 3 Napoleons to “Miss Mason’s slave Plassey for cutting a small pathway near Miss Mason’s Stock House”; and 3 Napoleons to “Miss Mason’s slave William for finding his gold spyglass”.
Later, in 1817, John spilled more beans, noting how Piontkowski had brought him a message from Napoleon stating that when his (John’s) daughter was married (to Impett of the 53rd) the Emperor would make her a present of five hundred pounds. John also noted that after her marriage (in the end to Captain Edwards) “Mr and Mrs Edwards spent about two hours with Bonaparte and all his attendants (except Countess Montholon). He (Bonaparte) seemed very low-spirited and dejected at Mrs E. leaving the island, filled her lap with sugar plums, filled a glass of wine and insisted upon carrying it himself to her – on their leaving the house he stood in a studious manner until they walk’d on some way, then follow’d them, on overtaking them, he embraced Capt. E. saying he could not help it, he put him so much in mind of his own brother.” Remarkably enough, these details correspond quite closely to those noted by Gourgaud in his memoirs for the date 26 July 1817, though Gourgaud says it was a close resemblance to Eugène and not to Joseph that struck the Emperor).
This second report was deemed so important that governor Lowe informed Lord Bathurst of it in a letter dated 31 October 1817.
Perhaps the strongest impression you get from this “chatter” is that, at times, Hudson Lowe was literally swamped with intel!