MAN WHO SAW NAPOLEON.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1833, 21 August 1913, Page 11

MAN WHO SAW NAPOLEON.

CENTENARIAN'S VISITS TO ST, HELENA AS A CHILD.

"Thi« afternoon, in-a stuffy little room in a small house in a Paris suburb, I held a hand that had been grasped by Napoleon and heard what is probably tho only voice left iu the world that once fell upon the Emperor's ears," so wrote tho Paris correspondent of tlio "Daily Mail" on July 8. lie added: Tho simple old man who connects' tho long dond past with the living present ia M. ricrre Schamcl-Boy., Ho is nearly 106 years old, and his father was a soldier's orderly who spent hia lifo in clopb personal' attendance on tho great Emperor. Born in the Palace of Versailles, and one of tlio little playmates of tho King of Rome, Napoleon's son, M. Schamol-Koy remembers seeing the' Emperor threo times, all of them at St. Helona, where he was taken to visit his father, who had followed Napoleon into exile. Ho saw the Emperor once more as ho lay dead at St; Helena. M. Schamel-Roy is a liandsomo old fellow, of strong features, though sunken face, with a, hooked noso and a flowing, silky, snow-white beard. It was in tho high, quavering voice of extreme old ago that lio spoke to me. When I mentioned tho name of the Emperor, it was as if tlio weight of years had suddenly fallen from him. "L'Empomtr," ho 6aid. "Ouij j'ai vu l'Empereur." ' King of Roma's Doll, Ho told how on one of his visits as a child to St. Helena, Sir Hudson Lowe, tho Emperor's guardian, suspected him of having been entrusted with a secret letter for theSprisoner. "I was taken," ho said, "to Sir Hudson Lowe. Ho domnjided whether 1 had not a letter for the Emperor. I said 'No,' but he was not satisfied. 'Strip that young Parisian for mc,' said Sir Hudson Lowe. So X was stripiwd and searched, but they found nothing and I was allowed to see the Emperor. I knelt beforo him and kissed his hand. Ho patted 1110 on tho head and called ino a loyal little fellow. I was about twelvo years old at that time." It is the Emperor's dark and piorcing eyes that are the old man's most vivid recollection of that far-off meeting. Among his treasures is a little doll that was once the plaything of tho young King of Rome. "It is just as it left tho Princo Imperial," lie told me. "It is dirty as you see, but it was his little hands that stilod it." M. Sehamel-Roy was for many years oostumier at tho Opera. He Ims now a; pension from tho Stales of Is. 3d. a day, but he will lie obliged to leavo his present lodging in a week's timo as he finds tho rent, ill a vear, too much for him.