…Leader Studied English to Escape the Boredom of Life in Exile.
"When we talk about country club prison sentences, we tend to imagine a marginal amount of time spent on the inside, though the phrase sounds like an extended vacation. Napoleon Bonaparte—exiled to the island of St. Helena for his crimes against Europe—got the full treatment, what some might even call a sweetheart deal. As the Public Domain Review notes, "the British had agreed to provide Le Petit Caporal with plentiful wine, meat, and musical instruments." He was given his own comfortable lodgings, a spacious country house, though it's said to have been draughty and full of rats.
On the other hand, Napoleon had to foreswear "what he most craved—family, power, Europe," for a condition of extreme isolation. The loss weighed heavily. After spending six years 1200 miles from shore, he died, some say of poisoning, but others say of boredom. Of his few amusements, conversing with Count Emmanuel de Las Cases—"historian and loyal supporter who had been allowed to voyage with him to Saint Helena"—proved most stimulating. Prevented from receiving newspapers in French, he longed to read the few he found in English…"
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goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
