"From the commencement of my greatness, I may, under every point of view, date the termination of the golden age of my Atlas. When I was transplanted to Court and permitted to approach your Majesty’s person, I conceived that I could not with propriety descend to the details that had hitherto occupied me. I confided the management of the copyright to one of my old college companions, who had been an emigrant like myself, but who did not turn the publication to so good an account as I had done.
"On entering upon my new post at Court, I was loaded with compliments on my production; but to these I replied indifferently, and just as one would do at a ball, after dropping one’s mask. When it was found that I never alluded to my work, that I never quoted from it, and that I avoided all discussion on it, I was never spoken to on the subject; and at length people began to wonder how I had ever written it, and indeed to doubt whether I had any right at all to be considered as its author.
"On hearing these words, the Emperor said to me, ‘My dear Las Cases, even this doubt has found its way to St. Helena. I have heard it affirmed that the work was not written by you, that you purchased the manuscript from the real author; and in support of this assertion it has been remarked that you know nothing at all about the book, because you never speak of it. To these observations,’ continued he, ‘I have merely contented myself with saying, Did you never know any question to remain without a complete answer? Besides I recognise throughout the whole work the style, the very expressions, of Las Cases.’
“Many,” said I, resuming my narrative, "will think I injured myself by this denial; but I preferred good taste to quackery, and I was only acting according to the dictates of my natural disposition. Your Majesty was the other day describing how Syees used to present himself loaded with written plans, and at the very first word of contradiction, as soon as he found it necessary to act on the defensive, he would gather up his papers and be off in a moment. This was precisely my feeling. I never could stand up publicly to support my opinions. Before I could do this, I must enjoy the authority of rank or the freedom of intimate friendship: otherwise I prefer dooming myself to silence, that is to say, when I am not interrogated and urged to the point. But to return to my subject.