Las Cases, EMMANUEL DIEUDONNÉ, COMTE DE

Las Cases, EMMANUEL DIEUDONNÉ, COMTE DE, the historiographer and companion of Napoleon in St Helena, was born in 1766, near Revel in Languedoc. He was a lieutenant in the navy before the Revolution, but then fled from France, and supported himself in England by private teaching. After Napoleon became consul, Las Cases established himself as a bookseller in Paris. A work that he wrote, Atlas historique (1803-4), attracted the attention of the emperor, who made him a baron, and employed him in the administration. After Waterloo he obtained leave to share the exile of Napoleon in St Helena, and there the ex-emperor dictated to him a part of his Memoirs. In 1816 Las Cases was sent back to Europe, and after Napoleon's death published Mémoirel de Ste-Hélène (8 vols. 1821-23), of which O'Meara's Napoleon in Exile is a kind of continuation. Both works attack Sir Hudson Lowe, Napoleon's keeper, charging him with undue harshness towards his prisoner. Las Cases died at Passy, 15th May 1842.