Classic Audiobook Collection - Recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena by Betsy Balcombe ~ Full Audiobook [biography]

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

Recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena by Betsy Balcombe audiobook. Genre: biography In this memoir written by Betsy Balcombe, who was a precocious 14 year old at the time of events, we are provided with a rare account of the character, the moods and humanity of Napoleon Bonaparte. She recalls her initial shock and fear at the arrival of the famous, exiled prisoner on the remote Island of St. Helena where she and her family resided. And how surprised she was when Napoleon decided he wanted to live with them at 'the Briars' until his home in Longwood would be made ready for him. She relates from memory how she came to think of him as a friend, a delightful companion, and a remarkable man. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:02:28) Chapter 01 (00:25:58) Chapter 02 (00:47:42) Chapter 03 (01:07:00) Chapter 04 (01:23:42) Chapter 05 (01:44:16) Chapter 06 (02:10:51) Chapter 07 (02:33:42) Chapter 08 (02:59:38) Chapter 09 (03:17:09) Chapter 10 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

recollections of napoleon at st helena by elizabeth balcom able preface the writer of the following pages trusts she will not be thought presumptuous in presenting them to the public thrown at a very early age into the society of napoleon and of those who composed his suite she considers it an almost imperative duty to communicate any fact or impression which though uninteresting in itself may still be worth recording as relating to him and as serving to elucidate his character could these recollections of the emperor have been published without having her name appended to them they would long ago have appeared but feeling that the sole merit to which they could lay claim consisted in their being faithful records of him and that if produced anonymously there would be no guarantee for their truth being moreover desirous to shun publicity and unequal to the task of authorship the undertaking has been postponed from time to time and perhaps would have been delayed still longer but for the pressure of calamitous circumstances which compels her to hesitate to hesitate to be postponed from time to time and perhaps would have been delayed still longer but for the pressure of calamitous circumstances which compels her to hesitate to hesitate no more, but with all their imperfections on their head, to send these pages at once into the world. The authoress may compare her feelings as she launches her little vessel on the waters to those of Shelley. When having exhausted his whole stock of paper he twisted a banknote into the shape of a little boat, and then committing it to the stream, waited on the other side for its arrival

with intense anxiety. Her shipbuilding powers, she fears, are as feeble, her materials as frail, but she has seen the little paper nautilus floating with impunity and confidence on the bosom of that mighty ocean, which has engulfed many a noble vessel. Accepting the augury, she entrusts her tiny bark to the waves of public opinion, not with confidence, however, but with timidity and hesitation. Yet is her solicitude not altogether unenlivened by the hope that it may reach its haven, if wafted by friendly breezes and favoured by propitious skies. The writer must grave indulgence for the frequent mention of herself,

during the narrative. The nature of the subject renders this unavoidable. Lucia Elizabeth Abel End of Preface Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena by Elizabeth Balcomable. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. 1. There points the muse to stranger's eye, the graves of those that cannot die.

My object in the following memoir is to confine myself as far as possible to what concerns Napoleon personally. Having, however, many reminiscences unconnected with him of the happy days of my childhood and feeling that they might be interesting to the public, especially to those who visited the island during the Emperor's captivity there,

I venture to insert them. A slight description of the localities connected with Napoleon will not, I trust, be considered uninteresting to my readers, and I may perhaps commence this slight memoir most properly by a few remarks upon the general aspect of St. Helena, and of the impression conveyed by it on first approaching its shores. The appearance of St. Helena on viewing it from the sea is different from that of any land I ever saw, and is certainly but little calculated to make one fall in love with it at first sight. The rock, rising abruptly from the ocean, with its oblong shape and perpendicular sides,

suggests to one's mind more the idea of a huge dark-colored ark lying at anchor floating on the bosom of the Atlantic than of a land intended for the habitation and support of living beings, nor on a nearer acquaintance does its character become more amiable. If a stranger approach it during the night, the effect on coming on deck in the morning is most peculiar and at first almost alarming. From the great depth of water, ships are able to run very close into the land, and the eye long accustomed to the expect of the of sea and atmosphere, is suddenly startled by coming almost as it seems, in contact with the dark, threatening rock towering hundreds of feet into the air, far above the mass of the tallest vessel. I was quite a child at the time of my first visit, and my terrors were increased by being told that the giant snouted crag, which bore some resemblance to the head of a negro when the breakfast bell struck would devour me first, and afterwards the rest of the passengers and crew. I rushed instantly below, and hiding my face on my mother's lap, tremblingly announced our fate. It was not without much difficulty that she succeeded in soothing my terrors by

assurances of safety and protection, but I did not venture from under her wing until the dreaded eight bells had sounded, and the appearance of breakfast announced better things in store for us. I was told that even the mighty heart of Napoleon sank within him when he first surveyed his future home. And as the Northumberland glided to her anchorage, revealing the galleries of the batteries on either side, bristling with cannon and frowning heavily upon him, the despairing inscription which the beautiful language of his infancy had rendered familiar to him seemed to have been inscribed on the gloomy rock. La chatte any sperenza voicentrata. On rounding Mundan's battery, Jamestown breaks upon the view. It is singular and striking, and quite in harmony with the rest

of the peculiar scenery of St. Helena. The houses are all built at the bottom of a wide ravine which looks as if it had been caused by some great convulsion of nature, or as if the rock, tired of its solitary life and isolated situation in the midst of the Atlantic, had given a great yawn and had then been unable to close its mouth again. The buildings are confined entirely to the bottom of this cleftorchasm, as its sides are too precipitous to allow of houses being built on them. The position of the town renders it sufficiently hot in summer. The cool sea breeze, so delicious in all tropical climates, is almost excluded by the situation of the valley as the inhabitants call Jamestown, and for nine months in the year

the heat is almost unendurable. We were fortunate enough to reside out of town, my father possessing a beautiful little cottage called the Briars, about a mile and a quarter from the valley, a spot meriting a slight description, both from its intrinsic beauty. and from having been the residence of Napoleon during the first three months of his exile in St. Helena. The way to the briars winds out of the town by roads cut in the side of the mountain. I cannot say I saw much of this road or the surrounding scenery on my first journey to our distant abode. I was, on that occasion, put into a basket and carried on a negro's head who trudged away with me very merrily singing some joyous air. Occasionally he put me down to rest,

and grinning from ear to ear, asked, me if I felt comfortable in my little nest. I was rather frightened as this was the first time I had seen a black man, but I soon reconciled myself to him and we became great friends. He told me he generally carried vegetables into the valley and appeared highly honored and proud that a living burden should have been confided to his care.

I was soon deposited in safety at the door of the briars, and bad adieu to my sable bearer who went away quite delighted with some little present my father gave him for making himself so amiable to me. Our cottage was built in the style of the bungalows in India. It was very low, the rooms being chiefly on one floor, and had it not been for its situation, would not have been thought so pretty.

But, surrounded as this verdant spot was by barren mountains, it looked a perfect little paradise, an Eden blooming in the midst of desolation. A beautiful avenue of banyan trees led up to it, and either side was flanked by evergreen and gigantic lacroses, interspersed with pomegranate and a myrtle, and a profusion of large white roses, much resembling our sweet briar from which, indeed, the place derived its name. A walk, shaded by pomegranate trees, thirty or forty feet in height, conducted to the garden. I must plead the same excuse for

devoting a few lines to the garden that I have to the cottage, for it was lovely in itself, and the favorite retreat of the emperor during his sojourn with us. It would require the pen of a Scott or the pencil of a clod to do anything like justice to its beauty. I often wander in my dreams through its myrtle groves, and the orange trees with their bright green leaves, delicious blossoms and golden fruit seem again before me as they were in my blessed days of childhood. Every description of tropical fruit flourished here luxuriantly. Various species of vine, citron, orange, fig, shaddock, guava, mango, all in endless profusion. the produce of this garden alone which the family could not consume brought annually from five hundred to six hundred pounds nature as if jealous of the beauty of this enchanting spot had surrounded it on every side with impenetrable barriers

on the east to speak geographically it was bounded by a precipice so steep as to render all approach impracticable the dark frowning mountain called peak hill rendered it inaccessible from the south to the westward it was preceptive to the westward it was pretextual protected by a cataract in itself a most picturesque and striking object. I forget its height, but its roar was very imposing to me, and the volume of water must have been considerable. In that hot climate it was a delightful next-door neighbor. In the most sultry day one could hardly feel the heat oppressive when gazing on its cool and sparkling waters. On the side nearest the cottage,

the defenses of the garden were completed by an aloe and prickly pear hedge through which no living thing could penetrate. The garden at the briars, like the bright dreams and hopes of my own early youth, is now withered and destroyed. It was sold to the East India Company by whom it was dug up and planted with mulberry trees, which speedily became food for worms, if I may be guilty of a conceit, on to me a melancholy subject. I believe the intended speculation proved unsuccessful. Two. Nay, then, farewell. Well, I've touched the highest point of all my greatness, and from that full meridian of my glory I haste now to my setting.

I shall fall like a bright exhalation in the evening, and no man see me more. We had been living for years in this romantic and secluded glen when our little aisle was suddenly freighted from its propriety, by hearing that Napoleon Bonaparte was to be confined as a prisoner of state. It was in October 1815 that this news first burst upon us. We heard one morning an alarm gun fired from Ladder Hill, which was the signal that a vessel was in sight off the island. The same evening, two naval officers arrived at the Briars, one of whom was announced as Captain D, commanding the Icarus Man of Orr.

He requested to see my father having intelligence of importance to communicate to him. On being conducted to him, he informed him that Napoleon Bonaparte, was on board the Northumberland under the command of Sir George Cockburn, and within a few days' sail of the island. The news of his escape from Elba, and the subsequent eventful campaign had, of course, not reached us, and I remember well how amazed and incredulous they all seemed to be at the information. Captain D. was obliged more than once to assure them of the correctness of his statement. My own feeling at the intelligence was excessive terror, and an undefined conviction that something awful would happen to us all. though of what nature I hardly knew.

I glanced eagerly at my father, and seeing his countenance calm, I became more composed, but still I listened to every word of Captain D's detail as if my fate depended on what he was telling us. The earliest idea I had of Napoleon was that of a huge ogre or giant,

with one large flaming red eye in the middle of his forehead, and long teeth protruding from his mouth with which he tore to pieces and devoured naughty little girls, especially those who did not know their lessons. I had rather grown out of this first opinion of Napoleon, but if less childish, my terror of him was still hardly diminished. The name of Bonaparte was still associated in my mind with everything that was bad and horrible. I had heard the most atrocious crimes imputed to him,

and if I had learned to consider him as a human being, I yet still believed him to be the worst that had ever existed. Nor was I singular in these feelings. They were participatory. They were participated by many much older and wiser than myself, I might say perhaps, by a majority of the English nation. Most of the newspapers of the day described him as a demon, and all those of his own country who lived in England were of course his bitter enemies, and from these two sources alone we formed our opinion of him. It was not, therefore, without uneasiness that I saw my father depart a day or two afterwards to go on board the vessel which had just cast anchor in the bay. The fleet consisted of the Northumberland, commanded by Sir George Cockburn, to whose care Napoleon had been confided.

The Havana, Captain Hamilton, and several other men of war, together with transports containing the 53rd regiment. We remained many hours in great anxiety. At last my father returned from his visit in safety, and we rushed out to question him as to what had occurred. Well, Papa, have you seen him? We exclaimed, for we thought of no one but Napoleon. He told us he had not seen the emperor, but had paid his respects to Sir George Cockburn, and had been introduced to Madame Bertrand, Madame Montelon, and the rest of Napoleon's suite. He added that General Bonaparte would land in the evening and was to remain for the present

at the House of Mr. Porteus, until Longwood, which was intended for his ultimate residence, should be ready for him. We were so eager to see the illustrious exile that we determined to go in the evening to the valley to witness his disembarkation. It was nearly dark when we arrived at the landing place, and shortly after, a boat from the Northumberland approached, and we saw a figure step from it on the shore which we were told was the emperor, but it was too dark to distinguish his features. He walked up the lines between the Admiral and General Bertrand, and enveloped as he

was in his sur, too, I could see little, but the occasional gleam of a diamond star which he wore on his heart. The whole population of St. Helena had crowded to behold him, and one could hardly have believed that it contained so many inhabitants. The pressure became so great that it was with difficulty a way could be made for him, and the centuries were at last ordered to stand with fixed bayonets at the entrance from the lines to the town to prevent the multitude from pouring in. Napoleon was excessively provoked at the eagerness of the crowd to get a peep at him, more particularly as he was received in silence, though, with respect. I heard him afterwards say how much he had been

annoyed at being followed and stared at, come in bates ferrous. We returned to the briars that night to talk and dream of Napoleon. Three. Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow all trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste.

Milton Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm, others whose fruit burnished with golden rind, hung amiable. Hasperian Fables True, if true here only, and of delicious taste. Milton The next morning we observed a large cavalcade moving along the path which wound round the

mountain, at the base of which our dear little cottage was lying almost hidden in its nest of leaves. The effect of the party was very picturesque. It consisted of five horsemen, and we watched them with great interest, as, following the windings of the road, they now gleamed in the sun's rays, and were thrown into brilliant, relief by the dark background behind, and then disappearing, we gazed earnestly until from some turn in the road they flashed again upon us. Sometimes we only saw a single white bloom or the glitter of a weapon in the sun. To my already excited fancy, it suggested the idea of an enormous serpent with burnished scales, occasionally showing himself as he crawled to our

little abode. We were still doubtful whether Napoleon were of the party. We had already learned to look for the gray sur-toe and small-cocked hat, but no figure in that dress could be distinguished, though our spy-glass was an anxious requisition. Everyone thought he would be best able to discover him. At last one of the party exclaimed, I see a figure with a small-cocked hat, but no great-coat. And then we were at last certain that it was the emperor.

We concluded that he was on his way to Longwood to look at his future residence. About two o'clock on that day, Mr. Umera and Dr. Warden called on us and were overwhelmed with all kinds of questions about Bonaparte, his manner, appearance, etc., etc. They described him as most agreeable and pleasing, and assured us we should be delighted with him. But all their fair words were thrown away upon me. I could think of him only with fear and trembling. When leaving us, they again repeated that our opinion of Napoleon would entirely change when we had once seen and conversed with him.

At four o'clock in the evening, the same horsemen whom we had seen in the morning again appeared on their return from Longwood. As soon as they reached the head of the narrow pass which led down to the briars they halted, and, after apparently a short deliberation, with terror, I saw them begin to descend the mountain and approach our cottage. I recollect feeling so dreadfully frightened that I wish to run and hide myself until they were gone. But Mama desired me to stay, and to remember and speak French as well as I could. I had learned that language during a visit my father had paid to England some years before, and as we had a French servant, I had not lost what I had then acquired. The party arrived at the gate, and there being no carriage road they all dismounted, excepting the emperor

who was now fully visible. He retained his seat and rode up the avenue, his horse's feet cutting up the turf on our pretty lawn. Sir George Cockburn walked on one side of his horse and General Bertrand on the other. How vividly I recollect my feelings of dread mingled with admiration, as I now first looked upon him who I had learned to fear so much. His appearance on horseback was noble and imposing.

The animal he rode was a superb one. His color jet black, and as he proudly stepped up the avenue, arching his neck and champing his bit, I thought he looked worthy to be the bearer of him who was once the ruler of nearly the whole European world. Napoleon's position on horseback, by adding height to his figure, supplied all that was wanting

to make me think him the most majestic person I had ever seen. His dress was green and covered with orders, and his saddle and housings were of crimson velvet richly embroidered with gold. He alighted at our house, and we all moved to the entrance to receive him. Sir George Cockburn introduced us to him. On a nearer approach, Napoleon contrasting, as his shorter figure did, with the noble height and aristocratic bearing of Sir George Cockburn, lost something of the dignity which had so much struck me on first seeing him.

He was deadly pale, and I thought his features, though cold and immovable and somewhat stern, were exceedingly beautiful. He seated himself on one of our cottage chairs, and after scanning our little apartment with his eagle glance, he complimented Mama on the pretty situation of the briars. When once he began to speak, his fascinating smile and kind manner removed every vestige of the fear with which I had hitherto regarded him. While he was talking to Mama, I had an opportunity of scrutinizing his features, which I did with the keenest interest,

and certainly I have never seen anyone with so remarkable in striking a physiognomy. The portraits of him give a good general idea of his features, but his smile and the expression of his eye could not be transmitted to canvas, and these constituted Napoleon's chief charm. His hair was dark brown and as fine and silky as a child's, rather too much so indeed for a man as its very softness caused it to look thin. His teeth were even but rather dark, and I afterwards found that this arose from his constant habit of eating licorice, of which he always kept a supply in his waistcoat pocket. The Emperor appeared much pleased with the briars and expressed a wish to remain there. My father had offered Sir George Cockburn apartments at the cottage, and he immediately assured us

of his willingness to resign them to General Bonaparte, as the situation appeared to please him so much, and it was arranged, much apparently to Napoleon's satisfaction, that he should be our guest until his residence at Longwood were fit to receive him. Our family, at the time of the Emperor's arrival consisted of my father, my mother, my elder sister, myself, and my two brothers who were quite children. Napoleon determined on not going down to the town again, and wished his rooms to be got ready for him immediately. Some chairs were then brought out at his request upon the lawn, and, seating himself on one, he desired me to take another,

which I did with a beating heart. He then said, You speak French. I replied that I did, and he asked me who had taught me. I informed him, and he put several questions to me about my studies, and more particularly concerning geography. He inquired the capitals of the different countries of Europe. What is the capital of France?

Paris Of Italy Rome Of Russia Petersburg now I replied Moscow Formerly

On my saying this He turned abruptly round And fixing his piercing eyes full in my face He demanded sternly Kila brule When I saw the expression of his eye And heard his changed voice All my former terror of him

returned and I was unable to utter a syllable I had often heard The burning of Moscow talked of and had been present at discussions as to whether the French or Russians were the authors of that dreadful conflagration. I therefore feared to offend him by alluding to it.

He repeated the question, and I stammered. I do not know, sir. Yes, he replied, laughing violently. You know very well, it's me that he has bruled. On seeing him laugh, I gained a little courage and said, I believe, sir, the Russians burnt it to get rid of the French. He again laughed and seemed pleased to find that I knew anything about the matter.

The arrangements made for him were necessarily most hurried, and while we were endeavouring to complete them in the way we thought most likely to contribute to his comfort, he amused himself by walking about the grounds and garden. In the evening he came into the house, and as my father and mother spoke French with difficulty, that language being then much less studied in England than it is at present, he addressed himself again to me and asked me whether I liked music, adding,

You are too young to play yourself. I felt rather piqued at this and told him I could both sing and play. He then asked me to sing and I sang as well as I could the Scotch song, Ye Banks and Braves. When I finished, he said it was the prettiest English air he had ever heard. I replied it was a Scottish ballad, not English,

and he remarked he thought it was too pretty to be English. Their music is vile, the worst in the world. He then inquired if I knew any French songs and among others, Vive Henri Cater. I said I did not. He began to hum the air, became abstracted, and leaving his seat, marched round the room,

keeping time to the song he was singing. When he had done he asked me what I thought of it, and I told him I did not like it at all, for I could not make out the air. In fact, Napoleon's voice was most unmusical, nor do I think he had any ear for music, for neither on this occasion nor in any way. of his subsequent attempts at singing, could I ever discover what tune it was he was executing?

He was, nevertheless, a good judge of music, if any Englishwoman may say so, after his sweeping denunciation of our claims to that science, probably from having constantly listened to the best performers. He expressed a great dislike to French music, which he said was almost as bad as the English, and that the Italians were the only people who could produce an opera. A lady, a friend of hours who frequently visited us at the Briars was extremely fond of Italian singing, which she loved indeed not wisely but too well, for her own attempts in the bravora style were the most absurd burlesque imaginable. Napoleon, however, constantly asked her to sing, and even listened with great politeness. But when she was gone, he often desired me to imitate her singing, which I did

as nearly as I could, and it seemed to amuse him. He used to shut his eyes and pretend he thought it was Mrs. Blank, our departed friend, and then pay me gravely the same compliments he would have done to her. The Emperor retired for the night shortly after my little attempt to amuse him, and thus terminated his first day at the Briars. End of chapters 1, 2, and 3. Chapters 4 and 5 of Recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena by Elizabeth Balcombe Abel. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. 4. The spicy myrtle with unwhithering leaf shines there and flourishes, the golden boast of Portugal and western India. There, the redder orange and the paler lime peep through their polished foliage.

Cooper It is not in my power to give a detailed account of the events of each day the Emperor spent with us. I shall never cease regretting that I did not keep a journal of all that occurred, but I was too young and too thoughtless to see the advantage of doing so. Besides, I trusted to a memory naturally most retentive, thinking it would enable me at any time to recall the minutest incident concerning Napoleon. In this, I have deceived myself. My life has been a checkered and a melancholy one, and many of its incidents have been of a nature to absorb the mind and abstract the attention from everything but the consideration of present misery. This, continued for a length of time, has erased things from my recollection which I thought

I never could have forgotten, but of which I now retain nothing but the consciousness that they took place and the regret that I am unable to record them. Many of the circumstances I am about to relate, however, I did write down shortly after they occurred, and the others have been kept fresh in my memory by being repeated to friends, so that the reader of my little volume may depend on the absolute truth and fidelity of my narrative, a consideration indeed, to which I have thought it right to sacrifice many others. I do not then profess to give a journal of what Napoleon Daily said and did at the briars, but the occurrences related I have inserted as nearly as possible in the order in which they took place.

The Emperor's habits, during the time he stayed with us, were very simple and regular. His usual hour for getting up was eight, and he seldom took anything but a cup of coffee until one when he breakfasted or rather lunched. He dined at nine and retired about eleven to his own rooms. his manner was so unaffectedly kind and amiable that in a few days I felt perfectly at ease in his society and looked upon him more as a companion of my own age than as the mighty warrior of whose name the world grew pale his spirits were very good

and he was at times almost boyish in his love of mirth and glee not unmixed sometimes with a tinge of malice shortly after his arrival a little girl Miss Legg the daughter of a friend came to visit us at the briars The poor child had heard such terrific stories of Bonaparte that when I told her he was coming up the lawn she clung to me in an agony of terror. Forgetting my own former fears,

I was cruel enough to run out and tell Napoleon of the child's fright begging him to come into the house. He walked up to her and brushing up his hair with his hand, shook his head, making horrible faces and giving a sort of savage howl. The little girl screamed so violently that Mama was afraid she would go into hysterics and took her out of the room. Napoleon laughed a good deal at the idea of his being such a bugbear and would hardly believe me when I told him that I had stood in the same dismay of him.

When I made this confession, he tried to frighten me as he had poor little misleg by brushing up his hair and distorting his features. But he looked more grotesque than horrible and I only laughed at him. He then, as a last resource, tried the howl, but was equally unsuccessful and seemed I thought a little provoked that he could not frighten me. He said the howl was Cossack, and it certainly was barbarous enough for anything. He took a good deal of exercise at this period, and was fond of taking exploring walks in the valley and adjacent mountain. One evening he strolled out, accompanied by General Gourgou, my sister and myself, into a meadow in which some cows were grazing.

One of these, the moment she saw our party, put her head down, and, I believe, her tail up, and advanced a pas-de-charge against the emperor. He made a skillful and rapid retreat, and, leaping nimbly over a wall, placed his rampart between himself and the enemy. But General Gorgow valiantly stood his ground, and drawing his sword, threw himself between his sovereign and the cow, exclaiming, This is the second time I have saved the Emperor's life. Napoleon laughed heartily when he heard the generals boast and said, He ought to have put himself in the position to repel cabalry. I told him the cow appeared tranquilized and, stopped the moment he disappeared, and he continued to laugh and said,

She wished to save the English government the expense in trouble of keeping him. The Emperor, during his residence under my father's roof, occupied only one room and a marquee. The room was one my father had built for a ballroom. There was a small lawn in front, railed round, and in this railing the marquee was pitched, connected with the house by a covered way. The marquee was divided into two compartments, the inner one, forming Napoleon's bedroom, and at one extremity of the external compartment there was a small tent-bed with green silk hangings on which General Gogh slept. It was the bedstead used by the emperor in all his campaigns.

Between the two divisions of the tent was a crown, which his devoted servants had carved out of the turf floor, and it was so placed that the emperor could not pass through without placing his foot on this emblem of royal dignity. Napoleon seemed to have no panchon for the pleasures of the table. He lived very simply and cared little or nothing about what he ate. He dined at nine, and at that hour, Cipriani, the maitre d'autel, made his appearance, and with a profound reverence said, in a solemn tone, "'le di'o de vort magistrate has servied. He then retreated backwards, followed by Napoleon and those of his suite who were to dine with him.

When he had finished, he would abruptly push away his chair from the table and quit the dining-room apparently glad it was over. A few days after his arrival he invited my sister and myself to dine with him, and began quizzing the English for their fondness for rose-biff and plum-pudding. I accused the French and return of living on frogs, and, running into the house, I brought him a caricature of a long, lean Frenchman with his mouth open, his tongue out and a frog on the tip of it, ready to jump down his throat. Underneath was written, a Frenchman's dinner.

He laughed at my impertinence and pinched my ear as he often did when he was, he was amused, and, sometimes, when a little provoked at my espieglary. Le Petit Lacassez, as he called Count Lacasse's son, formed one of the party on that day. He was then a lad of fourteen, and the emperor was fond of quizzing me about him, and telling me I should be his wife. Nothing enraged me so much. I could not bear to be considered such a child, and particularly at that moment, for there was a ball in prospect, to which I had great hopes Papa would allow me to go, and I knew that his objection would be founded on my being too young. Napoleon, seeing my annoyance, desired young Lacasse's to kiss me,

and he held both my hands whilst the little page saluted me. I did all in my power to escape, but in vain. The moment, however, that my hands were at liberty, I boxed le Petitie Lacaz's ears most thoroughly. But I determined to be revenged on Napoleon, and in descending to the cottage to play whist, an opportunity presented itself which I did not. not allow to escape. There was no internal communication between the part occupied by the

emperor and the rest of the house, and the path leading down was very steep and very narrow. There being barely room for one person to pass at a time, Napoleon walked first, Lecaas next, and then his son, and lastly my sister Jane. I allowed the party to proceed very quietly until I was left about ten yards behind, and then I ran with all my force on my sister Jane. She fell with extended hands on the little page. He was thrown upon his father, and the Grand Chamberlain, to his dismay, was pushed against the Emperor, who, although the shock was somewhat diminished by the time it reached him, had still some difficulty from the steepness of the path in preserving his footing. I was in ecstasies at the confusion I had created,

and exulted in the revenge I had taken for the kiss. But I was soon obliged to change my note of triumph. La Caz was thunderstruck at the insult offered to the emperor and became perfectly furious at my uncontrollable laughter. He seized me by the shoulders and pushed me violently on the rocky bank. It was now my turn to be enraged. I burst into tears of passion and turning to Napoleon cried out, Oh, sir, he has hurt me. Never mind, replied the emperor. Ne pleur, I will hold him while you punish him. And a good punishment. And a good finishing he got. I boxed the little man's ears until he begged for mercy, but I would show him none, and at length Napoleon let him go, telling him to run, and that if he could not run faster than I,

he deserved to be beaten again. He immediately started off as fast as he could and I after him, Napoleon clapping his hands and laughing him moderately at our race around the lawn. Lacaz never liked me after this adventure, and used to call me a rude hoyden. 5. Oh, that those lips had language. Life has passed with me but roughly since I heard thee last. Those lips are thine. Thy own sweet smile, I see. Cooper. I never met with anyone who bore childish liberty so well as Napoleon. He seemed to enter every sort of mirth or fun with the glee of a child, and though I have often tried his patience severely, I never knew. him to lose his temper or fall back upon his rank or rage to shield himself from the consequences of his own familiarity or of his indulgence to me. I looked upon him indeed, when with him, almost as a brother or companion of my own age, and all the cautions I received and my own resolutions to treat him with more respect and formality were put to flight the moment I came

within the influence of his arch smile and laugh. If I approached him more gravely than usual and with a more sedate step and subdued tone he would perhaps begin by saying, "'Eh bien, can you, mademoiselle Betsy? As Le Petitla Casse proved inconstant? If he have, bring him to me, or some other playful speech, which either pleased or teased me,

and made me at once forget all my previous determinations to behave prettily. My brothers were at this time quite children, and Napoleon used to allow them to sit on his knee and amuse themselves by playing with his orders, etc. more than once he had desired me to cut them off to please them. One day Alexander took up a pack of cars on which was the usual figure of the great mogul. The child held it up to Napoleon saying,

See, Bonie, this is you. He did not understand what my brother meant by calling him Boni. I explained that it was an abbreviation, the short for Bonaparte, but Lacasse interpreted the word literally and said it meant a bony person. Napoleon laughed and said, je ne s'est usue which he certainly never could have been even in his thinnest days his hand was the fattest and prettiest in the world his knuckles dimpled like those of a baby his fingers taper and beautifully formed and his nails perfect i have often admired its symmetry and once told him it did not look large and strong enough to wield a sword this led to the subject of swords and one of the emperor's suite who was present drew his sabre from the scabbard and pointing to some stains on the blades said that it was the blood of Englishmen.

The emperor desired him to sheath it, telling him it was bad taste to boast, particularly before ladies. Napoleon then produced from a richly embossed case the most magnificent sword I ever beheld. The sheath was composed of an entire piece of most splendidly marked tortoise-shell,

thickly studded with golden bees. The handle, not unlike a fleur-de-lis-in-shape, was of exquisitely wrought gold. It was indeed the most costly and elegant weapon I had ever seen. I requested Napoleon to allow me to examine it more closely, and then a circumstance which had occurred in the morning in which I had been much piqued at the Emperor's conduct flashed across me. The temptation was irresistible, and I determined to punish him for

what he had done. I drew the blade out quickly from the scabbard and began to flourish it over his head, making passes at him, the Emperor retreating until at last I fairly pinned him up in the corner. I kept telling him all the time that he had better say his prayers for I was going to kill him. My exulting cries at last brought my sister to Napoleon's assistance. She scolded me violently and said she would inform my father if I did not instantly desist. But I only laughed at her and maintained my post, keeping the emperor at bay until my arm dropped from sheer exhaustion. I can fancy I see the figure of the Grand Chamberlain now, with his spare form and parchment visage glowing with fear for the emperor's safety and indignation at the insult I was offering him.

He looked as if he could have annihilated me on the spot, but he had felt the weight of my hand before on his ears and prudence dictated to him to let me alone. When I resigned my sword, Napoleon took hold of my ear which had been bored only the day before, and pinched it, giving me great pain. I called out, and he then took hold of my nose which he pulled heartily but quite in fun. his good humor never left him during the whole scene. The following was the circumstance which had excited my ire in the morning. My father was very strict in enforcing our doing a French translation every day,

and Napoleon would often condescend to look over them and correct their faults. One morning I felt more than usually averse to performing this task, and when Napoleon arrived at the cottage and asked whether the translation was ready for him, I had not even begun it. When he saw this, he took to him. took up the paper and walked down the lawn with it to my father, who was preparing to mount his horse to ride to the valley, exclaiming as he approached, Balcombe, voila the theme of Mademoiselle Betzy, that he had bien-travaled, holding up at the same

time the black sheet of paper. My father comprehended him perfectly, but saw by the sheet of paper and my name being mentioned by the laughing emperor that he wished me to be scolded, and entering into the plot he pretended to be very angry and threatened if I did not finish my translation before he returned to dinner, I should be severely punished. He then rode off, and Napoleon left me laughing at my sullen and mortified air, and it was the recollection of this which made me try and frighten him with the sword. The Emperor, in the course of the evening, desired a quantity of bijouterie to be brought down to amuse us, and, amongst other things, the miniatures of the young king of Rome.

He seemed gratified and delighted when we expressed our admiration of them. He possessed a great many portraits of young Napoleon. One of them represented him sleeping in his cradle, which was in the form of a helmet of Mars. The banner of France waved over his head, and his tiny right hand supported a small globe. I asked the meaning of these emblems, and Napoleon said he was to be a great warrior,

and the globe in his hand signified that he was to rule the world. Another miniature on a snuff-box represented the little fellow on his knees before a crucifix. his hands clasped and his eyes raised to heaven. Underneath were these words, It pree le bon dieu for my paire, my mare, my mother. It was an exquisite thing. Another portrayed him with two lambs on one of which he was riding

while the other he was decking out with ribbons. The emperor told us these lambs were presented to his son by the inhabitants of Paris. An unwarlike emblem, and perhaps intended as a delicate hint to the emperor to make him a more peaceable citizen. than his papa. The Pascal Lamb, however, is, I believe, the badge on the colors of a distinguished English regiment, and perhaps may be intended to remind the soldier that gentleness and mercy

are not inconsistent with the fiercer and more lion-like attributes of his profession. We next saw another drawing in which the Empress Maria Louisa and her son were represented, surrounded by a sort of halo of roses and clouds, which I did not admire quite so much as some of the others. Napoleon then said he was going to show us the portrait of the most beautiful woman in the world, and produced an exquisite miniature of his sister Pauline. Certainly, I never saw anything so perfectly lovely. I could not keep my eyes from it and told him how enchanted I was with it. He seemed pleased with my praises and said it was a proof of taste, for she was perhaps one of the most lovely women that ever existed. The Emperor usually played cards every evening, and

when we were tired of looking at the miniatures, etc., he said, "'Now we will go to the cottage and play whist.' We all walked down together. Our little whist table was soon formed, but the cars did not run smoothly, and Napoleon desired Lacasse to seat himself at a side table

and deal them until they dealt easily. While the Grand Chamberlain was thus employed, Napoleon asked me what my Robbe de Bell was to be. I must mention that on my father's refusal to allow me to go to the ball, which was to be given by Sir George Coff, I had implored the Emperor's intercession for me. He most kindly asked my father to let me go, and his request, of course, was instantly exceeded

to. I now ran upstairs to bring my dress down to him. It was the first ball-dress I had ever possessed, and I was not a little proud of it. He said it was very pretty, and the carts being now ready, I placed it on the sofa and sat down to play. Napoleon and my sister were partners, and Lacassez fell to my lot. We had always hitherto played for sugarplums, but to-night Napoleon said, Mademoiselle Betsy, I will bet you a Napoleon on the game.

I had had a pagoda presented to me, which made up the sum of all my worldly riches, and I said I would bet him that against his Napoleon. The Emperor agreed to this, and we commenced playing. He seemed determined to terminate this day of espieglary as he had begun it. Peeping under his cars as they were dealt to him, he endeavored whenever he got an important one to draw off my attention, and then slyly held it up for my sister to see. I soon discovered this, and calling him to order, told him he was cheating, and that if he continued to do so, I would not play. At last he revoked intentionally, and at the end of the game tried to mix the cards together to prevent his being discovered,

but I started up and seizing hold of his hands, I pointed out to him and the others what he had done. He laughed until the tears ran out of his eyes and declared he had played fit. but that I had cheated and should pay him the pagoda. And when I persisted that he had revoked, he said I was mechant and a cheat. And catching up my ball-dress from off the sofa, he ran out of the room with it and up to the pavilion, leaving me in terror lest he should crush and spoil all my pretty roses. I instantly set off and chase of him, but he was too quick and darting through the marquis. He reached the inner room and locked himself in.

I then commenced a series of the most pathetic remonstrances and entreaties both in English and French to persuade him to restore me my frock, but in vain. He was inexorable, and I had the mortification of hearing him laugh at what I thought the most touching of my appeals. I was obliged to return without it. He afterwards sent down word he intended to keep it, and that I might make up my mind not to go to the ball. I lay awake half the night and at last cried myself to sleep, hoping he would relent in the morning. But the next day wore away and I saw no signs of my pretty frock. I sent several entreaties in the course of the day, but the answer was that the emperor

slapped and could not be disturbed. He had given these orders to tease me. At last the hour arrived for our departure for the valley. The horses were brought around and I saw the little black boys ready to start with our tin cases without alas, my beautiful dress being in them. I was in despair and hesitated whether I should not go in my plane frock rather than not go at all when to my great joy I saw the emperor running down the lawn

to the gate with my dress Here Miss Betsy I have brought your dress I hope you are a good girl now and that you will like the ball and mind that you dance with Gourgault General Gorgot was not very handsome and I had some childish feud with him

I was all delighted at getting back my dress and still more pleased to find my roses were not spoiled. He said he had ordered them to be arranged and pulled out in case any might have been crushed the night before. Napoleon walked by the side of our horses till he came to the end of the bridal road which led to the briars. He then stopped and remarked on the beauty of a house which was situated in the valley beneath us, asking to whom it belonged and expressing his intention of going down to see it. La Caz accompanied the emperor down the side of the mountain and we went on to the ball. He mentioned the next day how charmed he had been with the plan,

and that he had ridden home on a beautiful little Arab pony belonging to the owner, Major Hotson. End of chapters four and five. Chapter six and seven of recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena by Elizabeth Balcom Abel. Six. From the thicket the manhunter sprung. My cries echoed loud through the air. There was fury and wrath. on his tongue, he was deaf to the voice of despair. The slave. The only exception to the emperor's habits of regularity when with us was in his hour of rising. In the midst of our garden was a very large pond of transparent water full of gold and silver

fish, and near this was the grapeery formed of trellis work, quite covered with vines of every description. At the end of the grapree was an arbor, round and over with a trellage of grapes clustered in the richest profusion. To this spot which was so sheltered as to be cool in the most sultry weather, Napoleon was much attached. He would sometimes convey his papers there as early as four o'clock in the morning, and employ himself until breakfast time in writing, and when tired of his pen in dictating to la Caz. No one was ever permitted to intrude upon him when there, and this little attention was ever after gratefully remembered.

From this prohibition, however, I was exempt at the Emperor's own desire. I was considered a privileged person. Even when he was in the act of dictating a sentence to Lacaz, he would come and answer my call. Come and unlock the garden door, and I was always admitted and welcomed with a smile. I did not abuse this indulgence and seldom intruded on him when in his retreat. I remember, however, one day, a very pretty young lady came from the valley to pass the morning with us. She was dying to see Napoleon, but the heat was very oppressive, and he had retired to his arbor to avoid. it. I hesitated for some time between the fear of disturbing him and disappointing my friend,

but at last Miss C appeared so mortified at not seeing him that I ran down to the garden and knocked at the door. For a long while I received no answer, but at length, by dint of thumping and calling to the emperor, I succeeded in waking him. He had fallen asleep in the arbor over his papers. He came up to the door and asked me what I wanted. I said, let me in and you shall know. He replied, No. Tell me first what it is, and then you shall come in.

I was then obliged to say I wish to introduce a young lady to him. He declined seeing her and desired me to say he was unwell. I told him she would be dreadfully disappointed in that she was so pretty. Not like the lady I was obliged to say agreeable things to yesterday,

he rejoined. I assured him she was quite a different person, being very young and handsome. At last I succeeded in getting the door opened. As soon as I found it unlocked, I ran up to the table where he had been writing and snatched up his papers. Now, I said, for your ill nature in keeping me so long at the door, I shall keep these, and then I shall find out all your secrets. He looked a little alarmed when he saw the papers in my hand, and told me to put them down instantly, but I refused and

set off round the garden flourishing my trophies. At last he told me if I did not give them up, he would not be my friend, and I relinquished them. I then took hold of the emperor's hand, for fear he should escape and let him to the house where we found Missy. I introduced her to Napoleon, and he delighted her excessively by his compliments on her beauty, etc. When she was going away, he walked down the lawn with her and lifted her onto her horse. He told me after she was gone that she was a very pretty girl, but had the air of a marchand de mud. The golden fruit in this modern Garden of Hesperides had for its dragon an old melee slave named Toby, who had been captured and brought to the island as a slave many years before and had never since crossed its boundary.

He was an original and rather an interesting character. A perfect despot in his own domain he never allowed his authority to be disputed, and the family stood almost as much in awe of him as they did of the master of the briars himself. Napoleon took a fancy to old Toby and told Papa he wished to purchase him and give him his freedom, but for some political reason it was not permitted. The old man retained afterwards the most grateful sense of Napoleon's kindness, and was never more highly gratified than when employed in gathering the choicest fruit and arranging the most beautiful bouquets to be sent to Longwood to, that good man, bony, as he called the emperor. Napoleon made a point of inquiring whenever I saw him after the health of old Toby, and

when he took his leave of him, he presented him with twenty Napoleons. the emperor was very accessible while at the briars and knowing how much it would delight us he seemed to wish to return any little attentions we were able to offer him by courtesy and kindness to our friends my father one day during his residence with us invited a large party and the emperor said he would join us in the evening he performed his promise and delighted everyone with his urbanity and condescension when any of our guests were presented to him he usually inquired his profession and then turned the conversation upon some topic connected with it i have often heard wonder expressed at the extent of napoleon's information on matters of which he would hardly have been expected to know much On this occasion, a very clever medical man, after a long conversation with the emperor on the subject of his profession, declared his astonishment to my father at the knowledge he possessed, and the clearness and brilliancy with which he reasoned on it, though his theories were sometimes rather heterodox. Napoleon told him he had no faith whatever in medicine, and that his own remedies were starvation and the warm bath. At the same time, he professed a higher opinion of the medical or rather surgical profession than of any other. the practice of law he said was too severe an ordeal for poor human nature adding that he who abituates himself to the distortion of truth and to exaltation at the success of injustice will at last hardly know right from wrong so it is he remarked with politics a man must have a conventional conscience

of the church also les ecclesiastique he spoke harshly saying that too much was expected from its members and that they became hypocrites in consequence as to soldiers they were cut-throats and robbers, and not the less so because they were ready to send a bullet through your head if you told them your opinion of them. But surgeons, he said, are neither too good nor too bad. Their mission is to benefit mankind not to destroy, mystify, or inflame them against each other, and they have opportunities of studying human nature as well as of acquiring science. The Emperor spoke in high terms of Lorry, who he said was a man of genius and of unimpeachable integrity. On the Emperor's first arrival in St. Helena, he was fond of taking exploring walks in the valley just below our cottage. In these short walks, he was unattended by the officer on guard, and he had thus

the pleasure of feeling himself free from observation. The officer first appointed to exercise surveillance over him when at Longwood was a Captain Poppleton of the 53rd regiment. It was his duty to attend him in his rides, and the orders given on these occasions were that he was not to lose sight of Napoleon. The latter was one day riding with generals Bertrand, Montelon, Gourgau, and the rest of his suite, along one of the mountainous bridle paths at St. Helina with the orderly officer in attendance. Suddenly, the emperor turned short round to his left and spurring his horse violently, urged him up the face of the precipice, making the large stones fly from under him down the mountain, and leaving the orderly officer aghast, gazing at him in terror for his safety and doubted

to his intentions. Although equally well-mounted, none of his generals dared to follow him. Either Captain Poppleton could not depend on his horse, or his horse was unequal to the task of following Napoleon, and giving it up at once, he rode instantly off to Sir George Cockburn, who happened at the time to be dining with my father at the Briars. He arrived, breathless at our house, and, setting all ceremony aside, demanded to see Sir George on business of the utmost importance. He was ushered at once into the dining-room. The Admiral was in the act of discussing his soup, and listened, with an imperturbable countenance to the agitated detail of the occurrence,

with Captain Pobleton's startling exclamation of, Oh, sir, I have lost the Emperor. He very quietly advised him to return to Longwood, where he would most probably find General Bonaparte. This, as he prognosticated, was the case, and Napoleon often afterwards laughed at the consternation he had created. on captain poppleton's arriving at longwood he found the emperor seated at dinner and was unmercifully quizzed by him for the want of nerve he displayed and not daring to ride after him the emperor's vanity was flattered at having still the power to create fear though a captive in such a prison as the impregnable island of st helena i have mentioned being struck with napoleon's seat on horseback on first seeing him

he one day asked me whether i thought he rode well i told him and with the greatest truth that i thought he looked better on horseback than any one i had ever seen he appeared pleased in calling for his horse he mounted and rode several times at speed round the lawn making the animal wheel in a very narrow circle and showing the most complete mastery over him. One day, Erchambeau, his groom, was breaking in a beautiful young Arab which had been brought for the Emperor's riding. The colt was plunging and rearing in the most frightful manner, and could not be induced to pass a white cloth which had been purposely spread on the lawn to break him from shying. I told Napoleon it was impossible that he could ever ride that horse it was so vicious. He smiled, and beckoning to Archambeau, desired. him to dismount. And then, to my great terror, he himself got on the animal and soon succeeded

in making him not only past the cloth, but put his feet upon it, and then rode him over and over it several times. Erchambeau, as it seemed to me, hardly knew whether to laugh or cry. He was delighted with his emperor's prowess, but mortified at his managing a horse so easily which he had been trying in vain to subdue. Napoleon mentioned that he had once ridden a favorite gray charger one hundred and twenty miles in one day. It was to see his mother who was dangerously ill, and there were no other means of reaching her. The poor animal died in the course of the night. He said that his own power of standing fatigue was immense and that he could almost live in the saddle. I am afraid to say how many hours he told me once he had remained

on horseback, but I remember being much surprised at his powers of endurance. His great strength of Constitution was probably more instrumental than one would imagine at first view in enabling him to reach the pinnacle of his ambition. The state of the mind is so dependent on the corporeal frame that it is difficult to see how the kind of mental power which is necessary to success in more or political turmoil can exist without a corresponding strength of body or at least of Constitution. In how many critical periods of Napoleon's life would not the illness of a week have been fatal to his future schemes of empire? How much must have been fatal to his future schemes of empire? How might the sternness of purpose by which he subjugated his daring compeers of the revolution have been shaken, and his giant ambition thwarted by a trivial sickness?

The mind of even a Napoleon might have been prostrated, and his mighty will enfeebled by a few days' fever. The successful leader of a revolution ought especially to be exempt from the evils to which flesh is heir. His very absence from the arena for a few days is enough to ruin him. Depreciating reports are spread. Viches vanishes, and he is pushed from his stool by some more vigorous and more fortunate competitor. 7. Good humor there, and gay goodwill, and each still pleased and pleasing still. Neil. But, first he flew, I forgot to say, that he hovered a moment upon his way to look upon

Leipzig Plain. Byron The Emperor possessed a splendid set of China of the Severa manufacture which had been executed at an enormous cost. and presented to him by the city of Paris. The service was now unpacking and he sent for us to see them. They were painted by the first artists in Paris and were most lovely. Each plate cost twenty-five Napoleons. The subjects all bore reference to his campaigns or to some period of his early life. Many of them were battle-pieces in which the most striking incidents were portrayed

with the utmost spirit and fidelity. Others were landscapes representing scenery connected with his victories and triumphs. One, I remember, made a great impression on me. It was a drawing of Napoleon on the bridge of Arcola, a slim youth standing almost alone, with none near but the dead and dying who had fallen around him, was cheering on his more distant comrades to the assault. The Emperor seemed pleased at my admiring it, and putting his hand to his side, exclaimed laughing, I was rather more slender than I am now.

The Battle of Leipzig was one of the subjects depicted. on the China. Napoleon's figure was happily done and an admirable likeness, but one feels rather surprised at the selection of such a subject for a complementary present. I believe the Battle of Leipzig is considered to have been one of the most disastrous defeats on record, but probably the good citizens of Paris were not so well aware of this at the time the China was presented to him as they now are. His campaign in Egypt furnished subjects for some of the illustrations. The Ibus was introduced in several of these Egyptian scenes, and happening to have heard that that bird was worshipped by the Egyptians, I asked him if it were not so. He smiled, and entered into a long narration of

some of his adventures with the army in Egypt, advising me never to go there as I should catch the Ophhthalmia and spoil my eyes. I had also heard that he had professed Mohammedanism when there, and I had been prompted by someone to catacize him on the subject. I at once came out with the question in my Anglo-French, Why have you Turne Turque? He did not at first understand me, and I was obliged to explain that Turne Turk meant changing his religion. He laughed and said,

What is that to you? Fighting is a soldier's religion. I never changed that. The other is the affair of women and priests. Conta me, I always adopt the religion of the country I am in. At a later period, some Italian ecclesiastics arrived at St. and were attached to Napoleon's suite. Amongst the Emperor's domestics at the Briars was a very droll character, his lamplighter,

a sort of Liparello, a little fellow, most ingenious in making toys and other amusing mechanical contrivances. Napoleon would often send for the Scaramouche to amuse my brothers who were infinitely delighted with his tricks and buffooneries. Sometimes he constructed balloons, which were inflated and sent up amidst the acclamations of the whole party. One day he contrived to harness four mice to a small carriage, but the poor little animals were so terrified that he could not get them to move,

and after many ineffectual attempts, my brothers entreated the emperor to interfere. Napoleon told them to pinch the tails of the two leaders, and when they started the others would follow. This he did, and immediately the whole force campered off to our great amusement, Napoleon enjoying the fun as much as any of us, and delighted with the extravagant glee of my two brothers. I had often entreated the emperor to give a ball before he left the briars for Longwood,

in the large room occupied by him, and which had been built by my father for that purpose. He had promised me faithfully he would, but when I pressed him urgently for the fulfillment of his word, he only laughed at me, telling me he wondered I could be so silly as to think such a thing possible. But I never ceased reproaching him for his breach of faith,

and teased him so that at last to escape, my importunities, he said that as the ball was out of the question, he would consent by way of Amand Honorable to anything I chose to demand to console me for my disappointment. Dite me, What do you that you do you do you face, Mademoiselle Betsy? I replied instantly, if you will play the game of blind man's buff that you have so often promised me, I will forgive you the ball and never ask for it again. Not knowing the French term, if there be any, for blind man's buff, I had explained before to the Emperor the nature of the operation to be gone through.

He laughed at my choice and tried to persuade me to choose something else, but I was inexorable, and, seeing his fate inevitable, he resigned himself to it with a good grace, proposing we should begin at once. My sister and myself, and the son of General Bertrand, and some other of the Emperor's suite, formed the party. Napoleon said we should draw lots or should be blindfolded first, and he would distribute the tickets. Some slips of paper were prepared, on one of which was written the fatal word, La Ma'a, and the rest were blanks.

Whether accidentally or by Napoleon's contrivance I know not, but I was the first victim, and the Emperor taking a cambric handkerchief out of his pocket, tied it tightly over my eyes asking me if I could see. I cannot see you, I replied, but a faint gleam of light did certainly escape through one corner, making my darkness a little less visible. Napoleon, then taking his hat, waved it suddenly before my eyes, and the shadow and the wind it made startling me I drew back my head.

Ah, little monkey, he exclaimed in English, You can see pretty well. He then proceeded to tie another handkerchief over the first, which completely excluded every ray of light. I was then placed in the middle of the room and the game began. The emperor commenced by creeping stealthily up to me and giving my nose a very sharp twin. I knew it was he both from the act itself and from his footstep.

I darted forward and very nearly succeeded in catching him, but, bounding actively away, he eluded my grasp. I then groped about, and advancing again he this time took hold of my ear and pulled it. I stretched out my hands instantly, and in the exaltation of the moment screamed out, I have got you, I have got you. Now you shall be blindfolded. But to my mortification it proved to be my sister under cover of whom Napoleon had advance, stretching his hand over her head.

We then recommenced, the emperor saying, that as I had named the wrong person, I must continue blindfolded. He teased and quizzed me about my mistake and bantered me in every possible way, eluding at the same time with the greatest dexterity all my endeavors to catch him. At last, when the fun was growing fast and furious, and the uproar was at its height, it was announced that someone desired an audience of the emperor, and to my great annoyance. as I had set my heart on catching him and insisting on his being blindfolded,

our game came to a conclusion. End of Chapter 6 and 7. Chapters 8 and 9 of Recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena by Elizabeth Balcom Abel. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. 8. Wear this for me, one out of suits with fortune. That would give more, but that her hand lacks means.

Shakespeare. master go on and I will follow thee to the last gas with truth and loyalty the emperor having returned from seeing his visitor and his dinner hour approaching he invited us to dine with him we told him we had already dined then come and see me eat he added and when his dinner was announced by chepriani we accompanied him to his marquis when at table he desired navarre to bring in some creams for me I declined them as I had dined, but I had unfortunately told him once before that I was very fond of creams, and though I begged in vain to be excused, repeating a thousand times that I had dined and could eat no more, he pressed and insisted so strongly that I was at last obliged to comply and with some difficulty

managed to eat half a cream. But although I was satisfied, Napoleon was not. And when I left off eating, he commenced feeding me like a baby, calling me his little Bambina, and left, violently at my woeful countenance. At last I could bear it no longer and scampered out of the tent, the Emperor calling after me, Stop, Miss Betsy, do stay and eat another cream. You know you told me you like them. The next day he sent a quantity of bonbons by Marchant

with some creams desiring his compliments to Mademoiselle Betsy and intimating that the creams were for her. The Emperor possessed among his suite the most accomplished confezer in the world, Mr. Piron, daily supplied his table with the most elaborate and really sometimes the most elegant designs in patisserie, spun sugar and triumphal arches and amber palaces glittering with prismatic tints that looked as if they had been built for the queen of the fairies after her majesty's own designs. Napoleon often sent us in some of the prettiest of these architectural delicacies, and I shall always continue to think the bonbons from the atelier of Monsieur Piron more exquisite than anything I have ever tasted. But I suppose I must grant, with a sigh, that early youth threw its color de rose tints over Pieron's bonbons as well as over the more intellectual joys of that happy period. The Emperor sometimes added sugared words to make these sweet things sweeter.

On New Year's Day, a deputation consisting of the son of General Bertrand, Henri, and Tristram, Madame Montelon's little boy, arrived with a selection of bonbons for us, and Napoleon observed that he had sent his Cupidus to the graces. The bonbons were placed in crystal baskets covered with white sat and napkins on several plates. The plates I kept till lately when I presented them to a lady who had shown my mother and myself many very kind attentions, and they were some of the last presents I possessed of Napoleon's many little gifts to me, with the exception of the lock of his hair which I still retain, and which might be mistaken for the hair of an infant from its extreme softness and silkiness, Napoleon delighted in sending these little presents to ladies

and was generally courteous and attentive in his demeanor towards them. He always gave the impression of being fond of ladies' society, and as Mr. Omerer remarks, when alluding to my sister and myself, dining one day with him, his conversation was the perfection of coesery and very entertaining. He was perhaps rather too fond of using direct compliments, but this was very pardonable in one of his rank and country. he remarked once that he had heard a great deal of the beauty and elegance of the governor's daughter and asked me who i thought the most beautiful woman in the island i told him i thought madame bertrand superior beyond all comparison to any one i had ever before seen my father had been greatly struck with her majestic appearance on board the northumberland and i always thought every one else sank into insignificance when she appeared and yet her features were not regular and she had no strict pretensions to beauty but the expression of her face was very intellectual and her bearing queen-like and dignified

napoleon asked me if i did not consider madame montalon pretty i said no he then desired marchant to bring down a snuff-box on the lid of which was a miniature of madame montalon it certainly was like her and very beautiful he told me it was what she had been when young he then recurred to miss blank and said go-go spoke in raptures of her and had sketched her portrait from memory he produced the drawing and wished to know if i thought it a good likeness i too muched a good likeness i too told him she was infinitely more lovely in that it bore no trace of resemblance to her. I mentioned also that she was very clever and amiable. Napoleon said I was very enthusiastic in her favor and had made him quite long to see her. Madame Montelon and Bertrand and the rest of his suite often came to see him at the Briars and to remain there during the day. It was quite delightful to witness the deference and respect with which he was treated by them all.

To them he was still the Grand Emperor. his every look was watched and each wish anticipated as if he had still been on the throne of charlemagne on one of these occasions madame bertrand produced a miniature of the empress josephine which she she shewed to napoleon he gazed at it with the greatest emotion for a considerable time without speaking at last he exclaimed it was the most perfect likeness he had ever seen of her and told madame bertrand he would keep it which he did until his death he has often looked at my mother for a length of time he has often looked at my mother for a length of time time very earnestly and then apologized, saying that she reminded him so much of Josephine. Her memory appeared to be idolized by him, and he was never weary of dwelling on her sweetness of disposition and the grace of her movements. He said she was the most truly feminine woman he had ever known. In speaking of the Empress, he used to describe her as very subject to nervous affectations when in the least degree in disposed or anxious. He often said she was the most

amiable, elegant, charming, and affable woman in the world, and in the language of his native aisle asserted, "'era la dama la pio graciosa di Francia.' She was the goddess of the toilet. All fashions originated with her, everything she appeared in seemed elegant, and, moreover, she was so humane and was the best of women. Still, with all the veneration he felt for her, he could not bear that it should be suppose she exercised the sway over his public actions attributed to her and observed, although the Bourbons and English allowed that I did some good, yet they generally qualify it by saying it was chiefly through the instrumentality of Josephine when the fact was that she never

interfered with politics. In alluding to his divorce, he observed nothing would have induced him to listen to such a measure but political motives. No other reason could have persuaded him to separate himself from a wife whom he so tenderly loved. But he thanked God she had died in time to prevent her witnessing his last misfortune. She was the greatest patroness of the fine arts that had been known in France for a series of years. She had frequently little disputes with Donon and even with himself when she wanted to procure fine statues and pictures for her own gallery instead of the museum. But though I loved to attend to her whims, yet I always acted first to please the nation.

And whenever I obtained a fine statue or valuable picture, I sent it there for the people's benefit. Josephine was Grace personified. Everything she did was marked with it. She never acted inelegantly during the whole time we lived together. Her toilette was perfection, and she resisted the inroads of time, to all appearance, by the exquisite taste of her parure.

Napoleon afterwards spoke of the Empress Marie-Louise with great kindness and affection. He said she would have followed him to St. Helena if she had been allowed, and that she was a nameable creature and a very good wife. He possessed several portraits of her. They were not very attractive, and were soon to disadvantage when contrasted as they generally were with his own handsome and intellectual-looking family. The Emperor retired early this evening. He had been in low spirit since receiving his visitor, and after the portraits of the Empress Josephine and Maria Luisa had been produced, he appeared absorbed in mournful reflection. He had been in

and was still more melancholy undajected for the rest of the evening. His visitor proved to be a Count Piotzky, a Polish officer, who had formerly held a commission in La Grande Armée, and had landed in the morning having with great difficulty obtained permission to follow his master into exile, to share with him the vulture and the rock. He called at the briars and requesting an audience information had been sent to the emperor of his arrival. A long interview took place between them, which apparently excited painful recommendations. reminiscences in the mind of the exile. I asked him afterwards about his visitor. He seemed to have little personal recollection of him, but appeared gratified with his devotion and

observed he had proved himself a faithful servant by following him into exile. The Emperor's English, of which he sometimes spoke a few words, was the oldest in the world. He had formed an exaggerated idea of the quantity of wine drunk by English gentlemen, and used always to ask me, after we had had a party, how many bottles. of wine my father drank, and then laughing and counting on his fingers generally made the number five. One day, to annoy me, he said that my countrywoman drank gin and brandy, and then added in English, "'You like very much drink, miss, sometimes brandy, jean.' Though I could not help laughing at his way of saying this, I felt most indignant at the accusation,

and assured him that the ladies of England had the utmost horror of drinking spirits, and that they were even fastidious in the refinement of the refinement of the. of their ideas and in their general habits. He seemed amused at my earnestness, and quoted the instance of a Mrs. B. Blank, who had, in fact, paid him a visit once in a state of intoxication. It was singular indeed that one of the few English ladies he had ever been presented to should have been addicted to this habit.

At last he confessed to laughing that he had made the accusation only to tease me. When I was going away, he repeated, you like drink miss betsy drink drink drink nine if i should sleep or eat twere deadly sickness or else present death sorrow on thee and all the pack of you that triumph thus upon my misery go get thee gone i say shakespeare as the time drew near for napoleon's removal from the briars to longwood he would come into the drawing-room oftener stay longer. He would, he said, have preferred altogether, remaining at the briars, because he beguiled the hours with us better than he ever thought it possible he could have done on such a horrible rock as St. Helena. A day or two before his departure, General Bertrand came to the briars and informed Napoleon that Longwood smelt so strongly of paint that it was

unfit to go into. I shall never forget the fury of the emperor. He walked up and down the lawn gesticulating in the wildest manner. His rage was so great that it almost choked him. He declared that the smell of paint was so obnoxious to him that he would never inhabit a house where it existed, and that if the Grand Marshal's report were true, he should send down to the admiral and refuse to enter Longwood. He ordered Lacasse to set off early the next morning to examine the house and report if the information of General Bertrand was correct. At this time I went out to him on the lawn and inquired the cause of his being in such a rage. The instant I joined him he changed his manner, and in a calm tone mentioned the

reason of his annoyance. I was perfectly amazed at the power of control he evinced over his temper. In one moment from the most awful state of fury he subdued his irritability, and his manner became calm, gentle and composed. Lecais sent off at daylight the next morning and returned before twelve o'clock. He informed the emperor that the smell of paint was so slight as to be scarcely perceptible, and that a few hours would remove it altogether. The Grand Marshal was sharply reprimanded, as I afterwards learned for making an exaggerated report. It was arranged that he should leave the Briars two days afterwards for Longwood, which was now quite ready for him. On the appointed morning, which to me was a most melancholy one,

Sir George Cockburn, accompanied by the Emperor's suite, came to the Briars to escort him to his new abode. I was crying bitterly, and he came up and said, you must not cry, Mademoiselle Betsy. You must come and see me next week and very often. I told him that depended on my father. He turned to him and said, Balcombe, you must bring Missy Jane and Betsy to see me next week, eh? When will you ride up to Longwood?

My father promised he would and kept his word. He asked where Mama was, and I said she desired her kind regards to the Emperor and regretted not being able to see him before his departure as she was ill in bed. I will go and see her. And upstairs he darted before we had time to tell my mother of his approach.

He seated himself on the bed and expressed his regret of hearing she was unwell. He was warm in his acknowledgments of her attentions to him and said he would have preferred staying altogether at the briars if they would have permitted him. He then presented my mother

with a gold snuff-box and begged she would give it to my father as a mark of his friendship. He gave me a beautiful little bonbon which I had often admired and said you can give it as a gage d'amour to le pete de la casse. I burst into tears and ran out of the room. I stationed myself at a window from which I could see his departure, but my heart was too full to look on him as he left us,

and throwing myself on the bed I cried bitterly for a long time. When my father returned we asked him how the emperor liked his new residence. He said that he appeared out of spirits, and retiring to his dressing-room had shut himself up for the remainder of the day. From the circumstance that my father was the emperor's purveyor, we had a general order to visit Longwood, and we seldom allowed a week to pass without seeing him. On these occasions we generally arrived in time to breakfast with him at once and returned in the evening. He was more subject to depression of spirits than when at the briars, but still gleams

of his former playfulness shone out at times. On one occasion we found him firing at a mark with pistols. He put one into my hand, loaded, I believe, with powder, and in great trepidation I fired it off. He often called me afterwards, La Petit Tierraireur, and said he would form a core of sharpshooters of which I should be captain. He then went into the house, and he took me into the billiard room, a table having been just set up at Longwood. I remember thinking it too childish for men and very like marbles on a large scale. The Emperor condescended to teach me how to play, but I made very little progress, and amused myself with trying to hit his imperial fingers with the ball instead of making cannons and hazards. Napoleon's health and activity began to decline soon after his

arrival at Longwood. In consequence of the unfortunate disputes with the Governor Sir Hudson Lowe, his health became visibly impaired. He was unable, consequently, to enjoy that buoyancy of spirit, which had probably been the chief cause of his allowing me to be so often in his society, and of his distinguishing me with so much regard. But he never failed to treat me with the greatest tenderness and kindness. Some months after his departure I was attacked with an alarming illness. Mr. Omerer attended me and at one time despaired of my recovery. The Emperor's kindness in making inquiries after me and his other attentions I can never forget.

He ordered his confezer when I became convalescent to supply me daily from his own table with every delicacy to tempt my appetite and restore my strength. End of chapters 8 and 9. Chapter 10 and 11 of Recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena by Elizabeth Balgam Abel. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. 10. While here shall be our home, what best may ease the present misery and render hell more tolerable, if there be cure or charm to respite or deceive or slack the pain of this

Mill Mansion. Milton. Here I and sorrow sit. Here is my throne. Shakespeare. With the assistance of my daughter's pencil and some rough sketches I had by me, I have been enabled to give a view of the briars and the cottage occupied by Napoleon whilst he stayed with us. He certainly appeared very contented during that time,

and frequently expressed a strong desire that the government would permit him to remain there by purchasing the estate, and on their refusing to do so he sent General Montalon to negotiate with my father that he himself might become the purchaser of the briars. But circumstances, probably political, prevented the negotiation from being carried out. Napoleon used to watch with great interest the fatigue parties of the 53rd regiment as they wound round the mountains carrying on their shoulders the materials wherewith Longwood was to be rendered fit to receive him. And as the time of its completion drew nigh, he managed to be. manifested his discontent by grumbling at the fiefs and drums, to the sound of which the soldiers of the fifty-third used to toil up those steep declivities, as their monotonous notes warned him of the speedy termination of his sojourn at our cottage.

Shortly after the emperor left the briars, we proposed riding to Longwood to see him, feeling exceedingly anxious to know how he was accommodated, and, rather it may be, hoping to hear him make a comparison in favor of the sweet place he had left, for the sterile-looking domain in which his habit. was now placed. And I remember being in a state of ecstasy at the prospect of again beholding my old playmate, the loss of whose society I had so deeply regretted. We found him seated on the steps of his billiard-room chatting to little Tristram Montelon. The moment he perceived us he started up and hastened towards us. Running to my mother, he saluted her on each cheek, after which fashion he welcomed my sister, but as usual with me, he seized me by the ear and pinching it exclaimed. Ah, Mademoiselle Betsy,

Edwesage, eh, eh? He then asked us what we thought of his palace, and, bidding us follow him, said he would chew us over his menage. We were first conducted to his bedroom, which was small and cheerless. Instead of paper hangings, its walls were covered with fluted nankeen,

and the only decorations I observed were the different portraits of his family, which on a former occasion he had shun to us. His bed was the little camp bedstead with green silk hangings on which he said he had slept when on the battlefields of Marengo and Austerlitz. The only thing approaching to magnificence in the furniture of this chamber was a splendid silver wash-handstand basin and ewer. The first object on which his eyes would rest on awaking was a small bust of his son, which stood on the mantelpiece

facing his bed and above which hung a portrait of Marie-Louise. We then passed on through an ante-room to a small chamber, in which a bath had been put up for his use, and where he passed many hours of the day. The apartments appropriated to him were the two I have just mentioned, with a dressing-room, dining-room, drawing-room, and billiard-room. The latter was built by Sir George Cockburn, and was the only well-proportioned room of which Longwood could boast. After all these chambers were exhibited and commented on by Napoleon,

he proceeded with us to the kitchen, where he desired Pieron, the confectioner, to send in some creams and bonbons for Miss Betsy. thence we went to the larder where he directed our attention to a sheep that was hanging up and said laughingly "'Regardie, voila a mouton for my dinner, don't we have had a lantern. And sure enough it was so, the French servants having placed a candle in its lean carcass through which the light shone. After we had gone all over the rooms, he conducted us to those of Madame Montelon and introduced me to a little stranger. The Countess's baby, only then six weeks old, and to which he began down.

handling so awkwardly that we were in a state of terror lest he should let it fall. He occasionally diverted himself by pinching the little creature's nose and chin until it cried. When we quizzed him for his gosherie in handling the child, he assured us he had often nursed the little king of Rome when he was much younger than the little lily. Before terminating our visit, Napoleon took us over at the garden and grounds which surrounded his house. Nothing could express the dreariness of the view which presented itself from them. and a spectator unaccustomed to the savage and gigantic scenery of St. Helena could not fail to be impressed with its singularity. On the opposite side, the eye rested on a dismal and rugged-looking mountain, whose stupendous side was here and there diversified by patches of wild samphire,

prickly pears and aloes, serving to break but slightly the uniform sterility of the iron-colored rocks, the whole range of which exhibited little more than huge apertures of caverns and overhanging cliffs which, in the early years of the colonization of the island afforded shelter to herds of wild goats. I remember hearing Madame Bertrand tell my mother that one of Napoleon's favorite pastimes was to watch the clouds as they rolled over the highest point of that gigantic mountain, and as the mist reed themselves into fantastic draperies around its summit, sometimes obscuring the valleys from sight and occasionally stretching themselves out far to sea, his imagination would take wing and indulge itself in shaping out the future from those veyses.

papery nothings. As a diversion to close the day, the Emperor proposed a ride in his Irish jaunting car. Our horses were accordingly sent on to Hutskate, the residence of Madame Bertrand, and, accompanied by Napoleon, we set off at a hard gallop.

I always was and still am the greatest coward in a carriage. And of all vehicles, that jaunting car seemed to me to be the one best calculated to inspire terror. It was driven by the fearless Archambot, with unbroken cape horses three abreast round that most dangerous of roads

called the devil's punchbowl. The party occupying the side nearest the declivity seemed almost hanging over the precipice, while the others were apparently crushed against the gigantic walls formed by the perpendicular rock. These were drives which seemed to inspire Bonaparte with mischievous pleasure.

He added to my fright by repeatedly assuring me the horses were running away in that we should all be dashed to pieces. i shall never forget the joy i experienced on arriving in safety at madame bertranz and finding myself once more mounted on my quiet pony tom after napoleon had been on the island a few months some newspapers arrived containing anecdotes of him and all that occurred during his stay at the briars amongst other soties was a letter written by the marquist de m blank in which he described all the romping games that had taken place between napoleon and our family such as blind man's buff the sword scenes and ending his communication by observing that miss betsy was the wildest little girl he had ever met and expressing his belief that the young lady was poll this letter had been translated into the german and english journals my father was much enraged at my name thus appearing, and wish to call the Marquist to an account for his ill nature.

But my mother's intercessions prevailed, and she obtained an ample apology from the Marquess. On hearing of the affront that Miss Betsy had received from the Vieux-Imbicil, as Napoleon generally denominated him, he requested Dr. Romero would call at the briars on his way to St. James Valley with a message to me, which was to let me know how I might revenge myself. It so happened that the Marquis prided himself on the peculiar fashion of his wig, to which was attached a long cue. This embellishment to his head, Napoleon desired me to burn off with caustic. I was always ready for mischief, and in this instance had a double inducement,

on the Emperor's promise to reward me, on the receipt of the pigtail with the prettiest fan Mr. Solomon's shop contained. Fortunately, I was prevented indulging in this most hoidenish trick by the remonstrances of my mother. The next time I saw the Emperor, his first exclamation was, "'Eh, mademoiselle Betsy, "'Has you obeyed my order, "'and gained the ventailles?'

"'In reply, I made a great merit "'of being too dutiful a daughter "'to disobey my mother, "'however much my inclinations "'prompted me to revenge the insult. "'He pinched my ear "'in token of approval and said, "'Ah, Miss Betsy,

"'you commence to be so sage.' "'He then called Dr. Omerer "'and asked him if he had procured the fan. "'The doctor replied that there were none "'pretty enough. "'I believe I live.' looked disappointed, on perceiving which Napoleon, with his usual good nature, consoled me with the promise of something prettier, and he kept his word. In a few days I received a ring of

brilliance forming the letter N surmounted by a small eagle. The only revenge I took on the Marquess was by relating an anecdote of his greedy propensity, which diverted Napoleon very much. He was very fond of cauliflower, which were rare vegetables in this island. Dining with us one day at the briars, his de Kahn, Captain Gore, had omitted to point out to him that there were some at table, and it was only one about to be removed that the Marquess espied the retreating dish. His rage was most amusing, and with much gesticulation he exclaimed, Bait, Why not you not say that there were de choufleur?

During one of our riding excursions, we encountered Napoleon, who was returning from Sandy Bay, whether he had been to visit Mr. D. Blank, who resided there. He expressed himself delighted with the place, and spoke in high terms of the urbanity of the venerable host of Fairyland. This gentleman had passed all his life at St. Helena, and had at this time arrived at the advanced age of 70 without ever having left the island. His appearance was most prepossessing, and to those who loved to revel in the ideal and imaginative,

he might have been likened to a good genius presiding over the Fairy Valley in which he dwelt. A few years after the Emperor's visit, Mr. D. Blank, was induced to come to England, and thinking that he might never again return to his lovely and beloved valley, had a tree felled from his own fairyland, from under the shade of which he had often viewed the enchanting scenery around and had his coffin made from the wood. His arrival in England, together with his interesting character,

being made known to the Prince Regent, afterwards George IV, his Royal Highness desired that Mr. D., Blank, might be presented to him, and his Royal Highness was so gratified with the interview that he afterwards knighted Mr. D. Blank, who subsequently returned to the island of which he was so much enamored. I asked Napoleon if he had remarked one at Sandy Bay three singularly formed rocks, shaped like sugar-loaves, and called Lott's wife and daughters. He replied that he had.

I then related to him an anecdote connected with the largest of the three. More than half a century had elapsed since two slaves who preferred a free-booting life to one of labor and subjection, secreted themselves in a cave halfway up the declivity, which terminates the spiral rock called Lot's Wife. From this stronghold, their nocturnal sallies and depredations were carried on with a great success, and their retreat remaining for a long while undiscovered, they became the terror of the island. They were at length, however, tracked to their rocky hold where they stood a long siege, repelling all attacks by rolling stones on their assailants.

It was at last deemed necessary to send a party of soldiers to fire on them if they refused to surrender. But this measure was rendered unnecessary by the superior activity of one of the besieging party, who managed to climb the rock, reached the opposite side of the mountain, and, clambering up still higher to gain a situation above the cave, the mouth of which became thus exposed to the same mode of attack which had affected its defense, so that when one of the unfortunate freebooters approached the edge of the precipice to roll down stones, he was crushed to death, and his companions who were following him severely wounded. Many of the islanders believe to this day

that the ghost of the murdered slave is seen to make the circuit of the wild spot wherein he carried on his nightly orgies. A superstition given to an airy nothing a local habitation and a name. In St. Helena, every cavern has its spirit and every rock its legend. Napoleon, having listened to my legend

of the Sugarloaf Mountain, said he should regard it with greater interest the next time he rode in that direction. 11 To horse, to horse. Now there is nothing gives a man such spirit, leavening his blood as Cajan doth a curry as going at full speed. Byron

One of the many instances of Napoleon's great good nature and his kindness in promoting my amusement was on the occasion of the races at Deadwood which had been instituted by the Honorable Henry John Rouse, the present member for Westminster, and which were at that time anticipations. by the inhabitants of the island as a kind of jubilee. From having been, as was often the case, in arrears with my lessons, my father, by way of punishing

me, declared that I should not go to the races. And, fearing that he might be induced to break his determination, lent my pony Tom to a friend of his for that day. My vexation was very great at not knowing where to get a horse, and I happened to mention my difficulty to Dr. Omera, who told Napoleon. And my delight may be conceived when a short time of the short time time after all our party had left the briars for Deadwood, I perceived the doctor winding down the mountain path which led to our house, followed by a slave leading a superb grey horse called Mameluke, with a lady's side saddle and houses of crimson velvet embroidered with gold. Dr. Omera said that on telling the Emperor of my distress, he desired the quietest

horse in his table to be immediately prepared for my use. This simple good-natured act of the Emperor occasioned no small disturbance on the island, and sufficiently punished me for acting contrary to my father's wishes, by the pain it gave me to hear that he was considered to have committed a breach of discipline in permitting one of his family to ride a horse belonging to the Longwood establishment and for which he was reprimanded by the governor. We were told by Napoleon the next day that he had witnessed the races from the upper windows of General Bertrand's house and expressed himself much amused by them. He said he supposed I was too much diverted by the gay scene to feel my usual timidity. The emperor frequently urged my father to correct me whilst

young, and said I ought never to be encouraged in my foolish fears or even permitted to indulge therein. He said the Empress Josephine suffered the greatest terror in a carriage, and he mentioned several instances of her extreme fright when he was obliged to reprimand her severely. If I remember rightly, the Duchess De Brantes mentions in her memoirs of the emperor, one of the anecdotes on this subject which he recounted to us. There was so very little to vary the monotony of Napoleon's life that he took an interest in the most trifling attempts at gaiety in the island, and he generally consented to our entreaties to be present at some of the many entertainments which my father delighted in

promoting. On one occasion, my father gave a fight to celebrate the anniversary of my birthday at a pretty little place he possessed within the boundary of the emperor's rides, called Ross Cottage, so named as being the abode for a short time. of a highly esteemed friend the flag captain of the Northumberland whom Napoleon always designated as a bravissimo or homo. When the festivities were at their height, we described the Emperor riding along the hillside towards the house, but on seeing such an assembly he sent to say that he would content himself with looking at us from the heights above. I did not consider this was fulfilling his promise of coming to the party, and not liking to be

so disappointed, I scampered off to where he had taken up his position and begged he would present at our festivity, telling him he must not refuse, since it was my birthday. But all my entreaties were unavailing. He said he could not make up his mind to descend the hill to be exposed to the gaze of the multitude, who wished to gratify their curiosity with the sight of him. I insisted, however, on his tasting a piece of birthday cake which had been sent for that occasion by a friend from England, and who little knowing the strict surveillance exercise for all those in any way connected with the fallen chief and his adherents had the cake ornamented with a large eagle. This unluckily for us was the subject of much animate version.

I named it to Napoleon as an inducement for him to eat the cake, saying, It is the least you can do for getting us into such disgrace. Having thus induced him to eat a thick slice, he pinched my ear, calling me a saucy simpleton, and galloped away humming, or rather attempting to sing with his most unmusical voice. Vivericatre. One morning we went to call a Madame and found Napoleon seated by her bedside. We were about retreating, thinking we had been shown into a wrong room, when he called out in his imperfect English, desiring us to enter, and asked what we were afraid of, saying, I am visiting my dear loaf, my mistress. My mother observed that the latter term had a strange signification, and that it was never used in our language to express

friendship. He laughed heartily at the awkward error he had made, and promised not to forget the interpretation of the word for the future, repeating that he only meant to express that Madame Bertrand was his dear friend. It was by Napoleon's special desire that we ventured now and then to correct his English, and being very anxious to improve himself, he never let an opportunity pass when in our society without trying to converse in English, though from his exceedingly bad pronunciation and literal translations, it required the most exclusive attention to understand him. For my part, I seldom had patience to render him much assistance. My sister being generally obliged to finish what I had begun, for in the middle of his lesson I would walk away attracted by some more frivolous pursuit.

On returning, I was always saluted with a tap on the cheek or a pinch of the ear, with the exclamation of, Ah, Mademoiselle, Betsy, Petitititurdy that you are. You never sage. Bonaparte, on one occasion, asked us if we had seen Little Arthur, who was about a month old, and he repeated Madame Bertrand's speech on introducing the child to him. allow me to present to your majesty a subject who has dared to enter the gates of Longwood without a pass from Sir Hudson Lowe. He sat a long time chatting and quizzing me about the short waist and petticoats of my frock. He took great pleasure in teasing me about my trousers and calling me a little boy, which he always made a point of doing whenever he espied the trousers.

He thought the fashion of wearing short waists very frightful, and said if he were governor, he should issue an order that the ladies were not to appear dressed in that style. before leaving madame bertrand's cottage he joined the children in a game of puss in the corner to which i acted as mittress de ballet napoleon used to evince great curiosity about the subject of our conversations when we called on lady lowe at plantation house and asked whether they discussed our visits to longwood i told him that the same sort of interrogation went on there and that i was sure to be sharply though good-naturedly cross-questioned about what we did and what we heard when in his presence one evening why we were to be sharply though good-naturedly cross-questioned about what we did and what we heard when in his presence one evening one evening while Whilst on a visit to Madame Bertrand, we strolled up to see Mr. Omera, who happened to be engaged with the Emperor. Chippriani, however, sent in to say that some ladies were waiting to see him, and, on Napoleon hearing our names, he requested us to come in.

We found him in the billiard-room employed looking over some very large maps, and, moving about a number of pins, some with redheads, others with black. I asked him what he was doing. He replied that he was fighting over again some of his battles, and that the red-headed Pins were meant to represent the English and the black to indicate the French. One of his chief amusements was going through the evolutions of a lost battle to see if it were possible by any better maneuvering to have won it. End of chapters 10 and 11.

Chapters 12 and 13 of recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena by Elizabeth Balcombe Abel. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. 12. Foot it featly here and there. Hark, hark! The watch-dogs bark! Hark! I hear the strain of strutting Chanticleer!

Shakespeare A ball, occasionally given by the officers of the 66th regiment, afforded some variety to the dreariness of Madame Bertrand's changed existence. One of these took place whilst we were on a visit to her, and it was arranged that we should go together in Napoleon's carriage after dining with the Emperor, as he said he wished to criticize our dresses, and then proceed from his door to the ball.

Madame Montelon very good-naturedly sent her maid Josephine to arrange my hair. She combed and strained it off my face, making me look like a Chinese. It was the first time I had seen such a coiffure, and I thought I had never beheld anything so hideous in my life and would gladly have pulled it all down, but there was no time, and I was obliged to make my appearance before Napoleon, whose laugh I dreaded with my eyes literally starting from my head, in consequence of the uneasy manner in which my hair had been arranged.

However, to my great comfort, he did not quiz it, but said it was the only time he had ever seen it wear the appearance of anything like neatness. But my little lino frog did not pass muster so well. He declared it was frightful, from its extreme shortness, and desired me to have it lengthened. In vain I pleaded the impossibility of any alteration. He kept twitching about it until I was obliged to fly to Josephine and have the desired change made by letting down some of the tucks,

thereby spoiling the effect of my pretty dress. But I knew it was useless resisting once the fiat had gone forth. After dinner the carriage was announced, and we all obeyed the emperor's signal of rising from table, his manner of performing that ceremony being brusk and startling. He would push his chair suddenly away and rise as if he had received an electric shock. I recollect his remarking upon the want of calendry displayed by Englishmen and sitting so long after dinner.

He said, If Balcombe had been here, he would want to drink one, two, three, ah, Cinque Boutéé, eh? Balcombe go to the briars to get drunk. It was one of his early attempts

at expressing himself in English. I think I can see him now, holding up one of his exquisitely taper fingers, and counting how many bottles my father usually drank before he joined the ladies. If I were you, Mrs. Balcombe, he said, addressing my mother,

i should be very angry at being turned out to wait for two or three hours whilst your husband and his friends were making themselves drunk how different are frenchmen who think society cannot be agreeable without the presence of ladies after drinking some of la page's delectable coffee and being helped to the sugar by napoleon's fingers instead of silver tongs we proceeded to the carriage which was in waiting madame bertrand led the way carrying her baby little arthur followed by my mother my mother my mother sister and myself and general gougou on being seated the signal was given the whip applied to the spirited cape steeds and away they tore first on one side of the track for road there was none and then on the other madame bertrand screaming with all her power for archonbo to stop but it was not until a check was put to the velocity of the carriage by its coming in contact with a large gumwood tree that we had any chance of being heard at length the door was opened and out we

scrambled up to our knees in mud the night being wet and foggy. We had nearly a mile to walk through this filthy road to Deadwood and the poor countess all the while carrying her infant, who would not be pacified with any other nurse. I shall never forget the figure we cut on arriving at Mr. Baird's quarters where we were provided with dry clothes, nor the ludicrous appearance of Madame Bertrand, habited in one of Mrs. Baird's dresses, which was half a yard too short and much too small in every way. Mrs. Baird being remarkably petite, whilst the Countess was renomé for her tall and graceful stature. But in spite of our adventure and contretem, we had a very merry ball,

and the party did not separate until long after the booming guns from the forts around announced the break of day. We cared little for our walk home through the mist and rain, as we knew that on arriving at the Grand Marshal's cottage we should be refreshed by a good, breakfast and comfortable beds. Napoleon complimented me on my dancing and appearance at the ball, which he had heard were much admired, and also told me that I was considered very like Baroness Sturmur and might be mistaken for her young sister. I was flattered at the resemblance as I thought her the prettiest woman I had ever seen. I had been to a breakfast given to Lord Amherst, the British ambassador to the Chinese Empire on board the Newcastle, where this fate was held, the entertainers being Sir Pulteney and Lady Malcolm.

On next visiting Longwood, I was surprised and vexed to find that the emperor had heard an account of the party from other lips than mine, as I was anxious to forestall the narration of the exploits of a certain hoidenish young lady, namely myself, but he had received a faithful detail of them from Dr. Omera. He pretended to scold and take me to task for being such a petit folle, and said he hoped the account were not true. He then began recapitulating the offences of which I had been guilty. to my father, stating that I had teased and locked a pretty little Miss P while the ladies were being whipped over the side of the frigate to return to the shore, and it was not until we had nearly reached the fort that the fair lady's absence was perceived when it being inconvenient to return the barge, it was proposed to Captain G, one of the party, and a great admirer of the young lady, that he should proceed to the frigate and rescue the terrified girl. Miss Betsy must be punished for being so naughty. No, ma, Balcombe. turning to my father whom he requested to set me a task to be repeated to him on my next visit such a request my father was of course delighted to put into execution being only too happy to have an excuse to make me study on hearing what was in store for me i assured him i had been sufficiently punished already for my cruelty to miss p having been really frightened out of my little wits by the roaring of the cannon from every fort which overhung the bay and from all the men of war stationed in the harbor to salute lord

Amherst on his landing. I also mentioned the scolding I had received from Lady Lowe, who kept desiring me to use my reason, and not to be so childish. Napoleon did not lose the opportunity of attacking Lady Lowe, though at my expense, and said he wondered at her ladyship's want of perception in giving me credit for what I never possessed. I amused Bonaparte that day by my ecstasies in describing the impression of the courtier-like manner and charming address of Lord Amherst had made on me. seemed pleased at my entertaining the same idea as himself and said, The ambassador must have been fascinating to have impressed your youthful fancy.

From the strict surveillance exercised over the emperor, the inconveniences suffered by his suite were on many occasions extremely annoying, and I quote the following as an instance. My sister and I were constantly in the habit of staying with Madame Bertrand, who kindly volunteered during my long visits to her to superintend my studies. Upon one occasion at her request, I attempted to sing a little French romance composed by Ortense Board Noir, daughter to the Empress Josephine, entitled The Depart d'E d'Eastirien. This song had been sent to her the preceding evening by Napoleon, who was anxious to hear it,

and intimated that he should come for that purpose. He came, according to promise, but was not only disappointed but angry at the discordant sounds that issued from the piano, which from damp and disuse had acquired tones very like those of a broken down hurdy-gurdy. The only person on the island capable of remedying the defects of the instrument was Mr. Guinness, bandmaster on board of the General Kid, then lying in the St. James Harbor. Mr. Guinness, who at the request of the countess, was summoned by my father for the purpose, was on the point of leaving the side of the ship when an order from the governor desired him to stay where he was. Napoleon expressed a wish to see a boa constrictor brought

by Captain Murray Maxwell to the island. I had described its gorging goat and the extraordinary appearance it presented after such a meal, the horns of the unfortunate animal which had been put alive into the cage seemed as if they must protrude through the snake's skin. The emperor observed that he thought from what he had heard that the Marquis de M. Blank, from the quantity of food he consumed, must resemble the boa constrictor. I understood that it was not thought advisable to comply with the emperor's wish to have the monster conveyed to Longwood. Early one morning, whilst I was wandering about the gardens and plantations at Longwood,

I encountered the Emperor, who stopped, told me to come with him and he would shoe me some pretty toys. Such an invitation was not to be resisted, and I accordingly accompanied him to his billiard-room, where he displayed a most gorgeously carved set of chessmen, which had been presented to him by Mr. Elphin Stone. He might well call them toys, every one being in itself a gem. The castles surmounting superbly chased elephants were filled with warriors in the act of discharging arrows from their bended bows. The knights were cased in armor with their visors up

and mounted on beautifully caparisoned horses. My turd bishops appeared in their flowing robes, and every pawn was varied in character and splendor of costume, each figure furnishing a specimen of the dress of some different nation. Such workmanship had never before left China. art and taste had been exerted to the utmost to devise such rare specimens of skill and elegance. The Emperor was as much pleased with his present as I should have been with a new plaything. He told me he had just finished a game of chess with Lady Malcolm with those beautiful things,

and that she had beaten him. He thought solely from his attention having been occupied in admiring the men instead of considering the game. The workboxes and card counters were lovely. The latter represented all the varied trades of China, minutely executed in carving. These gifts were presented to Napoleon as a token of gratitude by Mr. Elphinstone, from the circumstance of the Emperor having humanely attended to his brother, when severely wounded on the field of Waterloo, on which occasion Napoleon sent for his refreshment a goblet of wine from his own canteen

on hearing he was faint from the loss of blood. Napoleon observed that he thought the chessmen too pretty for St. Helena, and that therefore he should transmit them to the king of Rome. Another present which attracted my attention was a superb ivory tea chest, which went open, presented a perfect model of the city of Canton, most ingeniously manufactured of stained ivory. Underneath this tray were packets of the finest tea done up in fantastic shapes. Napoleon told me that when he was emperor of France, he did not permit any tea to be drunk in his dominions, except that grown in Switzerland which so nearly resemble the Chinese plant that the difference

was not perceptible. He also cultivated the growth of beetroot for the purpose of making sugar instead of depending upon foreign produce. Seeing the Emperor one day less amicable than usual, and his face very much swollen and inflamed, I inquired the cause, when he told me that Mr. Omera had just performed the operation of drawing a tooth which caused him some pain. I exclaimed, What? You complain of the pain so trifling an operation can give? You, who have passed through battles innumerable, amid storms of bullets whizzing around you, and by some of which you must occasionally have been hit, I am ashamed of you. But nevertheless, give me the tooth, and I will get it set by Mr. Solomon's as an earring, and wear it for your sake. The idea made him laugh

heartily, in spite of his suffering, and caused him to remark that he thought I should never cut my wisdom teeth. He was always an extra good humor with himself whenever he was guilty of anything approaching to the nature of witticism. napoleon had a peculiar horror of ugly women and knowing this weakness i one day begged he would allow me to introduce him to a mrs s the wife of a gentleman holding a high official appointment in india i must confess feeling rather nervous at the time knowing her to be one of the very plainest persons ever seen she had nevertheless all the airs and graces of a beauty and believed herself to be as lovely as chineray had portrayed her on ivory she thought she might make an impression on the great man and for that purpose loaded herself with all the finery and Indian wardrobe could afford. She dressed in crimson velvet bordered with pearls, and her black hair she braided and adorned with pearls and butterflies

composed of diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. When introduced to Napoleon, and after he had put the usual questions to her as to whether she was married, how many children she had and so on, he scrutinized her over and over again trying, but in vain, to discover some point were on to compliment her. At last he perceived that she had an immense quantity of coarse, fuzzy black hair, which he remarked by saying to her,

Madame, you have most luxuriantaire. The lady was so much pleased with this speech of the emperors that on her arrival in England she published the newspapers an account of her interview with him, and said, Napoleon had lost his heart to her beauty. I really did incur the emperor's displeasure for a few days by the trick I had played him, having led him to suppose he was about to see a perfect Venus, and he prohibited me from ever introducing

any more ladies to him. Thirteen. Ye horrid towers the abode of broken hearts. Ye dungeons and ye cages of despair that monarchs have supplied from age to age with music, such unto their sovereign ears, the sighs and groans of miserable men. Cooper

Napoleon was very anxious about hearing any gossip relative to picnics, balls, or parties that took place at St. Helena, and always made me recount to him what we did, who we met, and who were my partners. He once asked me who danced the best at the Governor's Balls, and on my replying Mrs. Wilkes, the Governor's Lady, he was anxious to know what sort of dances were the fashion there. I described our quadrilles and country dances which had been introduced by a Mr. C. Blank, the greatest beau that ever came to St. Helena. This youth was

such an exquisite that he would sit with his feet elevated considerably above his head for an hour before dressing for dinner that he might squeeze them the more readily into tight shoes. He wore his epaulet nearly down to his elbow and his sword belt was embroidered with golden oak leaves. The same kind of embroidery confined his silk stocking round each knee where it resembled the order of the garter. His disgust was very great at finding the St. Helena ladies understand nothing but kitchen dances and reels, and he immediately began to drill and after much toil, succeeded in instructing them in the mysteries of the quadrille figures. Once, whilst he was figuring away in the capacity of dancing-master,

my mother very unceremoniously put her foot on his heel because he stood bending before her and nearly extinguishing her eye with the swallow-tails of his uniform coat. The perplexity this occasioned him was considerable from the difficulty he had in thrusting his foot again into its tiny case. Napoleon was so amused with our description of Young C. that he begged us to bring him to Longwood if he could get a pass. One was accordingly procured.

And as the Emperor's eye rested on him, putting on a most comical look, he told him that he had heard from Miss Betsy that he was a great dandy, which was anything but pleasing intelligence to the young hero, who began to think he was indebted for the honor of his interview with the great man to the circumstance of his being considered a sort of Tom Fool. Napoleon, suiting his conversation, which, as I have before said he always did, to his company began admiring the cut of his coat and said,

You are more fortunate than myself, for I am obliged to wear my coat turned. This had really been the case, as no cloth could be procured on the island of the shade of green worn by Napoleon and his suite. Young C. Blanks's interview with the great man, however, ended very satisfactorily to both, for, although a little too conceded, he was very gentlemanly, spoke French fluently, and left a pleasing expression on the exile of Longwood. One morning my father told me he was going to Longwood, and had been requested by the Emperor to bring myself and sister to see him, as he had something curious to show us. We were only too happy to obey his wishes, and the next day saw us at Longwood.

He reproached us for having so long neglected to pay him a visit, and wished to know why we had absented ourselves so much from him. On my telling him I had but just recovered from a slight attack of Kutsolay, he was cheering in his sympathy. I told him it had been occasioned by my walking with Captain Mackey and my sister to call on Mrs. Wilkes, and that our way led over the high mountain at the back of the briars called Peak Hill. It was certainly a tremendous undertaking for one so young to attempt. The mountain is not accessible to four-footed animals, and is two thousand feet in height and nearly perpendicular.

Imagine, therefore, our toiling to its summit and descending to the deep valley beneath, crossing Francis Plain, and ascending two mountain ridges before terminating our expedition. we arrived at plantation house worn and weary but when once there the kindness of the lady governess and the care and attention of her amiable and lovely daughter soon made us forget our fatigues and at noon of that same day we started for sir william d blank's lovely valley of fairyland i described all our adventure and the kindness we had received from mrs wilkes at plantation house and from miss d blank at fairyland a few days after napoleon invited the former lady with her husband and her husband and daughter to Longwood, but from political reasons the honor of the interview was declined. The wonderful exhibition we were invited to see was the process of turning water into ice by one of Leslie's machines, set out to Napoleon for that purpose. He explained the process to us

and tried to enlighten me as to the principle upon which air pumps were formed. He advised me, moreover, to get a book upon elementary chemistry for my amusement and improvement, and finished as usual by turning to my father, recommending him to enforce a lesson every day, and directing the good O'Meara, as he called his doctor, to be my examiner. After making a cup of ice, he insisted upon my putting a large piece into my mouth, and laughed to see the contortions it induced from the excessive cold. It was the first ice that had ever been seen at St. Helena, and a young island lady, Miss De F. Blanc, who was with us, would not believe that the solid mass in her hand was really frozen water until it melted and streamed

down her fingers. I recollect ending the morning's diversions by cutting from Napoleon's coat an embroidered bugle and running away with it as a trophy. I now regret that I did not keep it. But, like most other relics and valuable mementos, I gave it away. It was attached to the coat he wore at Waterloo. The Emperor asked me one day whether I was acquainted with Captain Wallace, who commanded the Poudargas, and on my replying in the affirmative he said somewhat abruptly, What does he think of me? it so happened that in the case of this officer the prejudice against napoleon and indeed against everything french at that time common to all englishmen was sharpened upon the wetstone of painful experience into the acuteness of rancor and bitter hatred perhaps the word prejudice is hardly a fit term to apply to that particular mania which then existed a feeling which first instilled into our infant minds by our nurses grew with our growth and strengthened with our strength until it fully ripened into that settled jealousy which was but too apparent in all the transactions which took place between the individual habitants of the hostile countries

it was therefore not without the assistance of all my small stock of girlish assurance that i ventured to answer oh he has the most abominable opinion of you in the world he says that you shut him up for ten years in the temple and there is no end to the barbarities that he lays to your charge he declared to us that on one occasion they removed him from one cell to another which had just been vacated by the corpse of a man who had shot himself through the head and that he met the body on the way moreover his jailers had not the decent to wash away the dead man's brains which had been scattered on the wall, but left them there for the special annoyance of the living occupant. Besides that, he accuses you of nearly starving him. To such an extent did he suffer from want of food that he and Captain Shaw, a fellow-sufferer, once tore a live duck to pieces and devoured it like cannibals. The Emperor observed that it was not to be wondered at that Captain Wallace was so inveterate against him, as he was the lieutenant who, together with Wright, had been

convicted of landing spies and brigands in his territories, for which they were afterwards reported to have been murdered by his, the emperor's orders. The conspiracy of Georges, Morro and Pichu, in which Captains Right and Wallace were supposed to have been mixed up, has been so often described and so ably discussed that there are few who have taken an interest in the history of Napoleon, but must be well acquainted with all the circumstances connected with it. I remember being greatly interested with Wallace's narrative of his escape from prison as it was told to us by him. Although years have passed since I heard it, still it is as freshly graven on my memory as when my first wondering ears listened to the exciting story. After ten long years of dreary captivity urged by that powerful stimulus which hope builds upon despair,

with the assistance of a rusty knife which he had contrived to conceal from his jailer, he succeeded in moving one of the bars from his prison windows. The first great obstacle being removed, he found he had to overcome another, not less formidable. A hundred feet beneath the aperture which his patience and skill had succeeded in making large enough for his egress, flowed the still dark waters of the sen. As a drowning man catches at a straw, so did he seize upon whatever was likely to break his fall. And with a rope of no greater length and thickness than he was able to make out of his linen, he lowered himself as far as it could reach.

The leap was fearful, but the very walls he touched gave him a convulsive shudder, when they brought to his mind the horrors of captivity and its concomitant evils of which starvation was not the least. The splash of his fall into the water was loud enough to rouse the sentinels. He was senseless from its stunning effects for some seconds, and when he came to himself struck out for the opposite bank. The bullets whizzed round him in all directions, but the darkness of the night was sufficient protection, and he gained the friendly shore in safety.

By the aid of an accomplice he obtained a pedlar's dress in which, after numberless hair-breadth escapes, he reached the coast, and was taken on board an English frigate. He was afterwards appointed to the Poudargas, and sent to cruise off St. Helena, he being naturally enough, supposed to be the best guard to set over one whom he hated as deeply as he did Napoleon. We always made a point of riding to Longwood every New Year's Day

to wish the Emperor a happy New Year, and we dined with him or Madame Bertrand, though more frequently with the former. I recollect one New Year's day I had been anticipating a present from the Emperor all the morning, and as the day wore on, my hopes began to wax faint, and I was beginning to make up my mind

to have nothing new and pretty to feast my eyes upon, when Napoleon himself waddled into Madame Bertrand's room, where my sister and I were seated, and perhaps rather enviously viewing some elegant souvenirs of which the Emperor had made the Countess a present that morning. in his hand were two beautiful

several cups exquisitely painted one representing himself in Egypt in the dress of a musselman upon the other was delineated an Egyptian woman

drying water here mademoiselle Betsy and Jane are two cups for you except them as a mark of the friendship I entertain for you both and for your kindness

to Madame Bertrand Oh how delighted I was with my beautiful gift I would not trust it out of my hand but rode with it wrapped in cotton all the way home for fear of its being injured. It always brought a smile to Napoleon's countenance

whenever he gave pleasure to the young around him. One day before the emperor had left my father's, we were walking with him down the pomegranate walk which led to the garden when suddenly the voices of strangers were heard and he began running away as fast as he could towards the garden gate, but found it locked from within. The stranger's steps approached nearer and nearer, and Napoleon had nothing left for it but to jump over the garden

fence, which unfortunately, was defended on the top by the prickly pear, a plant covered with thorns. When he found himself on the top, there he stuck, the thorny bush preventing his extricating himself. At length, after a considerable struggle, torn clothes and with his legs much scratched, the discomfited emperor descended on the garden side of the hedge before the advancing company surprised him. The wounds he received that day were of no trifling nature, and it required a little of Dr. Omerer's skill to extract the thorns which the prickly pairs had deposited in his imperial person. Napoleon always evinced great kindness and interest for those who were ill, and his sympathy was much excited in the case of Captain Menel, who had a very severe and dangerous

illness during the time he was stationed at St. Helena. I recollect perfectly whilst he was ill under my father's roof that Napoleon's maitre d'autel, Chepriani, came every day to inquire after him. when we saw the emperor a few days after Captain Maynell left us, we told him that he had been moved to plantation house, where he would have more room and better attention than at our cottage, and that he was so ill as to be obliged to be removed in his cot. He had a relapse and his life was despaired of. The Emperor begged when next we saw Lady Lowe we would send him word how the brave captain was. End of chapters 12 and 13. Chapter 14 and 15 of Recollections of Napoleon at St. Helina

by Elizabeth Balcom Abel This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Fourteen. Hark, to the boatswain's call, the cheering cry. While, through the seaman's hand, the tackle glides. Or schoolboy midshipman that, standing by, strains his shrill pipe, as good or ill betides, and well, the docile crew that skillful urchin guides. Byron

When mountains tremble, and the birds plunge in the clouds for refuge and withdraw from their down-topling nests, and bellowing herds stumble or heaving plains, and man's dread hath no words. Ye who have known what tis to dote upon a few dear objects, will, in sadness, feel such partings break the heart they fondly hope to heal. Byron Napoleon was fond of sailors and liked entering into conversation with the young midshipmen who conducted

the fatigue parties at Longwood. On one occasion a remarkably handsome and high-born young reefer attracted his notice from the activity he displayed in setting his men to work in erecting a commodious marquis out of a studding sale. He inquired his name, and when he heard it was the Honorable G.C., he remarked that he was one of the very few instances in which he had observed high birth combined with so much amiability and intelligence. We told the emperor we had the pleasure of being acquainted with the young Middy he so much admired and that he was the most popular of any of his young companions in the wardroom. I related to the emperor our first introduction to him, which was on our return from the

Admiral's ball when we saw him elevated in a cart, surrounded by his brother Middy's shouting at the top of his voice, Lord W.'s carriage stops the way. And, true enough, the way was stopped as the cart had been dragged by some of these wild boys within the arch of the castle, through which we had all to pass on our road homeward. The next time we heard of him, our sympathies were excited by hearing he had narrowly escaped being drowned, and afterwards being very nearly shot when rowing guard one night. The surf was dangerously high, compelling his boat to keep offshore, and, when hailed by the sentry, the roaring of the sea against the iron-girt rocks prevented the countersign from being heard. The guard then fired in a

amongst the crew, but our gallant young friend most providentially escaped with his life. We concluded our history of the Middy by telling Napoleon that his talent was equally distinguished in performing his duties either on sea or land, and that Sir Pultene Malcolm had made a farmer of him, interesting to his management the superintendents and cultivation of one of the government farms. The Admiral declared he had never before seen such vegetables produced on the sterile rock of St. Helena. Napoleon's concluding remark was that, whatever British sailors took in hand they never left undone when we were visiting Madame Bertrand's we always passed our Sundays as if at home reading the lessons for the day and observing the prayers etc one Sunday morning Napoleon came bustling in and seeing me very earnestly employed reading aloud to my sister asked what I was so intently engaged upon and why I looked so much graver than usual I told him I was learning to repeat the collect for the day and that if I failed in saying it my

father would be very angry. I remarked, I suppose you never learned to collect or anything religious, for I am told you disbelieved the existence of a God. He seemed displeased at my observation and answered, You have been told an untruth. When you are wiser, you will understand that no one could doubt the existence of a God. My mother asked him if he was a pedestrianerian, as reported. He admitted the truth of the accusation, saying, I believe that whatever a man's destiny calls upon him to do, that he must fulfill. Dr. Omera often amused us by recounting conversations he had with the emperor respecting priestcraft. One anecdote is impressed on my recollection from the amusement it afforded.

A poor, airing monk, having paid the debt of nature, a funeral oration was delivered by a brother priest to a large assembled congregation. The Holy Father proceeded to inform the multitude that the soul of the departed had to appear before the judgment seat, there to render an account of all its past actions. That being done, the evil and the good were then separated and thrown into opposite scales in order to see which preponderated. The good deeds were so few that the scale flew up, and the poor soul was condemned to the regions below, and, conducted by devils to Eblis's dread abode, there to be tormented with, fire unquenched, unquenchable, around within his form to dwell.

the flame had reached his feet and legs and was proceeding to envelop his wretched body when he sinking into the bottomless pit with but his head above the liquid fire cried out oh my patron saint save me take compassion on me and throw into the scale of my good deeds all the lime and stone that i gave to repair the convent his saint listened to the supplications of the tortured one and gathering all the materials the monk had collected to build and adorn his monastery did as he desired, and threw them into the scale of good which immediately had the effect of overbalancing the evil, and the sinner's soul was taken to paradise that moment. The moral meant to be conveyed was, how useful to that poor sinner's eternal salvation was his having kept his convent in repair, for had he not bestowed all that lime and stone, his soul would have been to this day consuming in the fires prepared for the devil and his angels. Billiards was a game much played by Napoleon and his suite.

I had the honor of being instructed in its mysteries by him. But when tired of my lesson, my amusement consisted in aiming the balls at his fingers, and I was never more pleased than when I succeeded in making him cry out. One day our pass from Sir Hudson Lowe only specified a visit to General Bertrand, but my anxiety to see Napoleon caused me to break through the rule laid down, and the consequences of my imprudence were nearly proving very serious. as my father all but lost the appointment he then held under government. I had caught sight of the Emperor in his favorite billiard-room, and not being able to resist

having a game with him, I listened to no remonstrance, but bounded off, leaving my father in dismay of the consequences likely to ensue. Instead of my anticipated game of throwing about the balls, I was requested to read a book by Dr. Warden, the surgeon of the Northumberland, that had just come out. It was in English, and I had the task of waiting through several chapters and making it as intelligible as my ungrammatical French permitted. Napoleon was much pleased with Dr. Warden's book and said, His work was a very true one. I finished reading it to him whilst we remained with Madame Bertrand. In the cool of the evening we used to have chairs brought out and placed on the lawn

leading to the billiard-room under the gumwood trees, and the countess Bertrand and Montelon, with their husbands and children, my sister and myself, would remain for hours. after sunset listening to the thousand crickets with which the ground at Longwood seemed alive. The moonlight nights were remarkably beautiful at St. Helena. The blue of the sky so deep and clear that it would be difficult to imagine any scene more solemn and imposing than the appearance presented by the landscape on such occasions. Either the star shine brighter in that firmament, and the moon seems fuller and more lustrous, or it may be that the recollection of those joyous days had no cloud to dim their radiance. It was a very strong. It was a

one of these splendid starry nights, and at the time we were on a visit to Madame Bertrand that the party was grouped about, some seated on the steps of the billiard-room, others in the garden enjoying the cool, refreshing breeze. The day had been one of the most sultry ever experienced within the recollection of the oldest inhabitant of St. Helena. Suddenly, we heard a lumbering heavy noise as if loaded wagons were rumbling over the ground immediately under us. Those seated near the billiard-room sprang up aghast, thinking the house was falling about their ears. Dr. Omera and Major Blakeney, who was appointed captain of the guard at Longwood, rushed immediately from their rooms expecting to find the ladies half dead with fear.

All the household, some of whom were in bed, ran out in the greatest alarm. Some were gazing up at the sky, others looking stupefied with wonder and amazement as to what had caused such a commotion. Little Tristram Montelon, who had some time previously retired to rest, came screaming to his mother, declaring that somebody had been trying to throw a... him out of bed. The cause of our terror proved to be an earthquake, the only one remembered to have occurred at St. Helena for nearly a century. The horror this event occasioned us all can only be conceived by those who are acquainted with the island. More especially was the alarm felt by those whose friends and relatives were residing in any of the valleys, so narrow and wedge-like

in their form and flanked as they generally were, by tremendous overhanging precipices at the summit of which enormous loose rocks threatened continual destruction to those who were beneath. It was observed at the time that had the shocks been lateral instead of perpendicular, those who resided in the valleys must have been destroyed by the vast boulders of stone which would have fallen from the mountains above. Napoleon had retired to bed, and it was not till the next morning that we saw him. He asked us if we had been frightened by the tremblement de Terre on the previous evening, observing that I looked pale and quiet.

He mentioned to General Bertrand that he at first thought the conqueror, a 74 lying in the harbor, had blown up, and that the Great Powder magazine had exploded, but on feeling the third shock he perceived it to be an earthquake. It lasted from 16 to 18 seconds. Many people fancied the rumbling noise they had first heard to be thunder, but when it was remembered that such a phenomenon as thunder was never heard nor had lightning ever been seen since the discovery of St. Helena, that idea was abandoned. thunder and lightning had never been known to disturb the harmony of the climate to account for this it is said that the electric fluid is attracted by a high and conical-shaped mountain called diana's peak and conducted by it into the sea i was too much alarmed after the occurrence of the earthquake to go to bed for many nights seeing me one day unusually low-spirited napoleon inquired what could possibly have happened to drive away the dimples from my usually reaunt face Has anyone run away with a favorite brooky de ball? Or is the pet-black nurse, old Sarah dead? What can have occurred? I told him it was neither one thing nor the other, but simply that our kind lady governess,

Mrs. Wilkes, had left the island, and such demonstrations of grief had never before been seen at St. Helena. She was so beloved, people of all ranks and ages crowded to the castle to say, God bless you, and a safe and happy voyage home. Not a dry eye was to be seen amongst the crowd then collected. That leave-taking of our much-loved and respected Governor and his family resembled more a funeral than a levee. So sad and solemn was every face.

I fancy I can see them now, following the party to the beach as they embarked in the barge that conducted them on board the Havana. And when the noble frigate spread her canvas to the swelling breeze that bore from the little rock, those who had contributed so much to the happiness of its grateful, impressed inhabitants, groups of sorrow-stricken ladies were seen wandering under the pebble trees of the sister's walk, watching the vessel as she lessened from their tearful gaze, bearing on board a family who had rendered themselves so popular by their urbanity and kindness which is even remembered to this day. I recounted the scene we had witnessed and suffered with

the rest to the emperor. He was quite interested in the recital, and regretted much not having been equated with the lady governess as she must have been so very amiable. napoleon's hour for rising was uncertain though generally early it much depended on the rest he took during the day or the sultry state of the weather occasionally he would sleep for an hour or two on the bench under our trellis grape walk at the briars and when he awoke refreshed would write or dictate away for hours together sometimes he would diversify his occupation by riding round our lawn on his beautiful black horse hope the name pleased him it was the first he had ridden on the island and he liked the augury after his long day sleeps he would court the drowsy god at night by desiring marchant to read to him until the sweet restorer nature's soft nurse came to his aid frequently when the nights were illumined by the splendid tropical moon would he rise at three o'clock and saunter down to the garden long before old toby the slave had slept off his first nap and there he would regale himself with an early breakfast of delicious fruits with which our garden abounded our old maylay was so fond of the man bonie as he would regale himself with an early breakfast of delicious fruits with which our garden abounded our old maylay was so fond of the man bonie as he designated the emperor, that he always placed the garden key where Napoleon's fingers could reach it under the wicket. No one else was ever favored in the like manner, but he had

completely fascinated and won the old man's heart, and Napoleon looked upon Toby with a kind of romantic interest, as one who had been cruelly wronged in his youthful career. After these early risings, he generally fasted until eleven, when he would breakfast a la fort with his suite. He usually ate very fast, but did not admire highly seasoned dishes. He pretty, he referred a roasted leg of mutton to any other English joint, and I have often seen him take the knuckle in his hand and pare off all the brown part of it. Napoleon had some very beautiful seals and rare coins from which he good-naturedly employed himself in taking off impressions in sealing-wax. Whilst he was thus engaged, I once mischievously jogged his elbow and caused him to drop the hot

wax on his fingers. It was very painful and raised a large blister, but he was so very good-natured about it that I told him I was quite sorry for what I had done, whereas had he been cross, I should have rejoiced. Fifteen And thou dread statue, yet existent in the austerest form. Our nation's foes lament on fox's death. A bust delayed, a book refused, can shake the sleep of him who kept the world awake. Byron

It was not long after Napoleon had been at Longwood the chance to him. in one of his rise to a romantic glen named the Friars Valley, a wildly picturesque spot so-called from the peculiar formation of a huge rock fashioned by nature's hand into the figure of a monk with his cowl thrown back dressed in flowing robes with a rosary at his side. He forms a peculiar feature in their grotesque scenery with which great part of the island abounds, that immediately around it, consisting of stupendous teral rocks detached by deep and frightful ravines, some rising perpendicularly many hundred feet, and here and there are seen bare masses of stone towering aloft,

with flowering aloes bursting forth from fissures in their iron-colored sides. I have endeavored to convey in the annex sketch some faint idea of this romantic, though desolate-looking valley. Napoleon had heard of the legend connected with it, and asked me if I had ever seen the willow the wist, which he was told lighted the old friar's lantern. I said I had been often frightened by it, for when quite a little child, my mother,

thinking the air on the mountains, purer than that of St. James Valley, generally sent me thither under the care of an old negro nurse who resided in a little cottage directly overlooking the veil. Oftentimes would she threaten if I did not repeat my letters correctly

to give me to the monk who would carry me off in his lantern. I perfectly recollect how heartily the emperor laughed at my describing the tricks I played on old Sarah. I had a box of letters, which was her daily duty to see me arrange in place in alphabetical order. My great fun was to turn them topsy-turvy at the same time

keeping them quite straight. When I placed them properly, I arranged them unevenly. But the dear old nurse who did not understand a letter in her alphabet was certain to commend me for the neat arrangement I had affected, but I was threatened with the friar when my lesson presented an untidy appearance however right it might be. The story attached to the valley was this. The place where the friar now stands was supposed once to have been the sight of a Roman Catholic chapel, adjoining which was the residence of the officiating priest, a monk of the Franciscan order, who was considered an example of Christian piety and humility,

his life being passed in the performance of acts of charity and benevolence, such as attending the sick, relieving the oppressed, and often did he interpose his charitable interference between the severe taskmaster and his wretched slaves, when the latter were condemned for some trifling offense to undergo fearful mutilations or the cruel lash. Thus, in acts of piety, this man of God pursued his way, blessing and blessed, till his senses became enthralled by the surpassing beauty of a mountain nymph, who dwelt in a cottage not

far removed from the friar's lonely habitation. It was in one of his rambles in search of some object of charity that his eyes first encountered this lovely daughter of the Atlantic Isle, tending a herd of her father's mountain goats. They had strayed so far that she had vainly tried to collect them, and was returning tired and sad to her dwelling, when, encountering the monk she humbly told her tale and asked his assistance it was readily accorded for who could resist such an appeal enhanced by so much beauty the scattered flock was reunited and the young girl gracefully acknowledging his service with a light heart returned to her home it would have been well for the good father had that

interview been the last but fate ordained it otherwise again and again he sought her mountain caught pouring into the maiden's ear his tale of love and adoration and finally besought her to be his bride. She promised, but on one condition only, to listen to his suit. He must renounce his creed and become of her faith. Upon these terms alone would she consent, and until he had resolved thus to prove his devotion must not hope to see her again. The struggle was a fearful one in the breast of the monk, but love triumphed in the end. He forsook the faith of his fathers, broke his vows, and became a renegade. In due course of time, the wedding day was fixed. The ceremony was to be performed in that very chapel which had so often

re-echoed the apostates pious prayers for his suffering flock, and the bride, accompanied by her attendant maidens, approached the altar. The service was read, and just as the bridegroom was clasping the hand of his beloved, a fearful crash resounded, the rock was rent asunder, and every bestage of the chapel and of those it contained forever disappeared. In its place stands the gaunt image of the grim friar, an example and a sad warning to those who suffer their evil passions to prevail over their better judgment. I remember one morning seeing the emperor much moved. He had been exhibiting a marble bust of the king of Rome which had been sent to him by the Empress Marie-Louise. He took us out into his bedroom to inspect them, and we were loud in our praises of the beauty of the

child who could have furnished the sculptor with so attractive a subject for his classical art. Napoleon gazed on it with proud satisfaction and was evidently much delighted at our warm encomiums upon its loveliness. My mother told him he ought indeed to exalted being the father of such a beautiful creature as that boy must be. Smiles seemed to light up his face and my mother often said, she never saw a countenance at the time so interestingly expressive of parental fondness. The bust of the young Napoleon was the size of life exquisitely chiseled in white marble, and on it was inscribed Napoleon, François,

Chal, Joseph, etc. It bore the decoration of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. It was sent mysteriously to Napoleon and arrived in charge of a sailor who had received it through the orders of Marie-Louise. The sculptor resided at Leghorn and the Empress had it conveyed

to the gunner of a ship bound for St. Helena, it was said, as a silent token of her regard and unchanged affection for the ex-emperor. When we had seen and admired this treasure, Madame Bertrand invited us to accompany her, and be charmed by the exhibition of a variety of presents from Lady Holland, which had been sent out and had arrived only a few days before. They offered a rich feast to my eyes. Such an assemblage of beautiful trinkets I had never

beheld, and I viewed them again and again in an ecstasy of delight. Lady Holland was very kind to Madame Bertrand and Montelon, especially to the former, and many were the grateful prayers I have heard her offer for the happiness of that excellent lady, who evinced such true charity in displaying so many considerate attentions, which could not but be highly appreciated under the circumstances. Napoleon, when speaking of her ladyship, always called her, La Bon Lady Holland, and expressed himself very grateful for her kindness and attention to him when abandoned by the world in that desolate island.

He remarked that all the members of the family of the great fox abounded in liberal and generous sentiments. In speaking of that statesman, he used to say, he was sincere and honest in his intentions, and had he lived, England would not have been desolated by war. He was the only minister who knew the interests of his country. He said he was received with a kind of triumph in every city of the French Empire, and feated and welcomed by all its inhabitants. Every town he visited seemed to vie with the other which should offer him the greatest honors. He related a circumstance, which he said must have made a gratifying impression on the mind of that great man. One day Fox visited Saint-Clu. The private apartments of the palace there were never shown,

being exclusively kept for the use of the emperor. However, by some accident, the minister and Mrs. Fox opened one of the doors of the sanctum and entered. There they beheld statues of the great men of all times and nations. Sydney, Hampton, Washington, Cicero, Lord Chatham, and amongst the rest his own, which was instantly recognized by his lady who exclaimed, My dear, this is yours. This little incident, though trifling, procured him great attentions

and spread directly through Paris. End of chapters 14 and 15. Chapter 16 and 17 of recollections of Napoleon at St. Helina by Elizabeth Balcom-Abel. This Liverpool's recording is in the public domain. 16 He that has sailed upon the dark blue sea Has viewed at times I ween

A full fair sight When the fresh breeze is fair as breeze may be The white sail set The gallant frigate tight Byron I recollect being at Longwood One beautiful day The atmosphere had that peculiar lightness and brilliancy

Which in a great measure constituted the charm Of the climate of St. Helena The sea lay glistening in the sun sun like a sheet of quicksilver, the little merry waves bursting in sparkling foam at the foot of the stupendous rocks, and the exquisite soft verdure immediately surrounding Longwood formed a very pleasant contrast to the stern features of the rest of the island. It was one of those days in which the past and the future are alike disregarded. Anxious thought is suspended for a moment, and the present alone is felt and enjoyed. I remember bounding up to St. Dennis and asking for

Napoleon. My joyousness was somewhat damped by the gravity with which he replied that the emperor was watching the approach of the conqueror, then coming in bearing the flag of Admiral Pamplin. You will find him, he said, near Madame Bertrand's, but he is in no mood for badinage to de mademoiselle. Notwithstanding this check, I proceeded towards the cottage, and in a moment the whole tone of my mind was changed from gaiety to sadness. Young as I was, I could not help being strongly impressed by the intense melancholy of his expression. The ashes of a thousand thoughts were on his brow. He was standing with General Bertrand.

His eyes bent sadly on the 74, which was yet but a speck in the line of the horizon. The magnificent ship soon grew upon our sight as beating up to windward, silently yet proudly she pursued her brave career, sailing amid the loneliness like a thing endowed with heart and mind. She seemed the very impersonation of Majesty. Byron thought the ocean with a single vessel moving over it the most poetical object in nature. Perhaps its utter loneliness is the cause. The thought has since occurred to me that Napoleon might then have gazed upon that ship as typical of his own fortunes,

so lordly yet mastered, and impelled by some unseen resistless power towards that wild shore, destined to be the tomb of all his daring hopes and mad ambition. Such spirits are undoubtedly sent into the world, by an omniscient providence for a beneficent and merciful purpose. Their fiery course is run. They would still urge on, but their headlong rashness may be made the instrument of their ruin, and the stern hand of death arrest them before they have tasted of that earthly glory for which they toiled.

Their deeds, however, still live and become often benefits to mankind, though springing from an evil source. The Emperor, after a long silence commented on the beautiful management of the vessel. The English are kings upon the sea, he said, and then smiling somewhat sarcastically added, I wonder what they think of our beautiful island. They cannot be mutilated by the sight of my gigantic prison walls. His natural prejudice against the island rendered him blind to the many beauties with which it abounded. He beheld all with a jaundiced eye. Thus ever do our views of life take their coloring from our feelings and the nature of the circumstances in which we are

placed. Our eyes see all around in gloom with views of their own, fresh borrowed from the heart. He would frequently rail at the island in no measured language. I always defended it in proportionate terms of praise. Sometimes he laughed at my impertinence, and at others he would pinch my ear and ask me how I could possibly dare to have an opinion on the subject. The Emperor had that great charm in social life of being amused and interested in matters of trifling import. It seems to me. to be an attribute of his countrymen, from which no doubt they derive that vivacity and talon de society, generally possessed by them, but which, from our inherent reserve and

national shyness, would sit awkwardly on us English. It would be something like the statue of Hercules in the National Gallery, stepping from his pedestal and taking Sarito's place in the Pa de l'ombre. Napoleon was very fond of extracting from me my little store of knowledge acquired from, I fear, rather desultory reading. However, being fond of of books and having a retentive memory, I could apparently chain his interest for some hours. Now, Mademoiselle Betsy, he would say, I hope you have been good child and l'ertal your lesson, which he said purposely to annoy me as I was anxious to be thought full-grown, and, like most young ladies of my age, scorned the idea of being called a child, deeming myself fully competent

to embark upon the troubless sea of life, and to battle with its storms without the rudder of experience. He was much interested in a favorite study of mine, namely, the account of the discovery and colonization of St. Helena by the Portuguese, and he would listen attentively while I repeated it, for I had it almost by heart. My young brother, Alexander, had a pet goat of which he was very fond, and the animal used to draw him about in a little carriage. One day Napoleon had given him a little box made by Pieron, full of bonbons. When my brother had eaten all his sugar plums and was grieving over his exhausted store, he unluckily chanced to espy a pill-box which, with other medicines, had been inadvertently placed on a bench in the garden. He carefully put some of its

contents into his bonbonierre, and gravely walking up to the emperor, presented it. Napoleon, always good-natured to the child and supposing them to be sugar-plumps, helped himself to one and began eating it. I need not say how soon it was ejected, and what coughing and nausea ensued when my little brother's mischievous trick was divulged, and it was full. found that pills of a very unpalatable nature had been offered to and swallowed by the emperor. The poor little fellow got soundly whipped by my father, to whom his naughty conduct had been made known by La Caz, who witnessed the joke and immediately reported it. He knew my father to be too severe a disciplinarian to overlook even a trifling fault. My father had been suffering

from a violent attack of gout, which prevented his riding to Longwood as was his daily habit. When he saw Napoleon after his recovery, the emperor began laughing at him and told him if he sat a shorter time after dinner he would have fewer attacks of gout. He asked him what remedies he had resorted to to be cured. My father replied he had taken O Medicinal, upon which Napoleon laughingly remarked, had he drank more pure water and less wine he might have dispensed with the O medicinal. He told him he was too young to want physics, as remedies ought only to be resorted to by the old. In speaking of his own abstemious habits, he observed that he drank very little wine.

However, the little he did drink was absolutely taken medicinally, and he always found himself better after it, feeling convinced that if he left it off, he should soon become ill. One of his principal specifics was a warm salt water bath. Mr. Omera told us that having recommended Napoleon a dose of medicine soon after he came to St. Helena, he answered him by a slap in the face, and told him if he were not better on the he should have recourse to his own remedy, abstinence and a bath. He was very fond of asking anatomical questions, and often fancied that he had disease of the heart and made Omera count its pulsations. He constantly complained of illness from the exposed

situation of Longwood, the wind continually beating in his face or the sun scorching his brain. He used to observe, when at the briars, that he never suffered any ailment for there he had shady and sheltered walks. Certainly Longwood was very bleak. and scarcely any vegetables would grow upon it, except a kind of coarse cow grass which even horses refuse. A long interval frequently elapsed between our visits to the Emperor. A few months previously to our leaving St. Helena, he had been very ill,

and, from Mr. Omer's account, we feared he might never rally from the state of prostration of mind and body into which he had sunk. He was obstinate in refusing to take exercise, disliking the strict watch kept over him on the occasion of his walking abroad. and he declared he would rather die at once than use the only means recommended of alleviating his disorder.

Mr. Omera entreated permission to call in a brother-surgeon that in the event of his complaint continuing obstinate, blame might not be attached to him for trusting solely to his opinion. I recollect hearing Mr. Omera repeat the Emperor's reply, which was to this effect, that if all the physicians in the universe were collected, they would but repeat what you have already advised me, to take constant exercise on horseback. I am well aware of the truth of what you say, but were I to call in, Mr. Blank,

it would be but like sending a physician to a starving man instead of giving him a loaf of bread. I have no objection to your making known to him my state of health if it be any satisfaction to you, but I know that he will say, exercise. As long as this strict surveillance is enforced, I will never stir out. It was invalienable.

Jane, Dr. Omera again and again urged the subject. His invariable reply was, Would you have me render myself liable to be stopped and insulted by the sentries surrounding my house, as Madame Bertrand was some days ago? It would have made a fine caricature in the London print shops. Napoleon Bonaparte stopped at the gate by a sentinel charging him with a fixed bayonet. How the Londoners would have laughed. The only one of his suite who appeared careless of these restrictions was General Gogo. He had been stopped, Napoleon observed, 50 times. Once, when at the briars he said he had been treated rather unceremoniously by a sentry, and complaints being made to the Admiral that officer was really displeased about it,

and took every precaution to prevent a recurrence of such annoyance. When we saw Napoleon after this illness, the havoc and change it had made in his appearance was sad to look upon. His face was literally the color of yellow wax and his cheeks had fallen in pouches on either side his face. His ankles were so swollen that the flesh literally hung over his shoes. He was so weak that without resting one hand on a table near him and the other on the shoulder of an attendant he could not have stood. I was so grieved at seeing him in such a

pitiable state that my eyes overflowed with tears, and I could with difficulty forbear sobbing aloud. He saw how shocked we were and tried to make light of it, saying he was sure the good Omera would soon cure him. But my mother observed when we had left that death was stamped on every feature. He, however, rallied from this attack to pass nearly three more years in hopeless misery, for it became more evident to him that the anticipation in which he indulged on first coming to St. Helena, of quitting the island, became fainter as health declined in time wore on. The Emperor expressed much curiosity to be introduced to a Mr. Manning who had arrived at St. Helena

on his voyage to England from China, which country he had visited after exploring the unknown and at that time untravelled Kingdom of Tibet. Napoleon said he had a great curiosity to hear something relating to their mode of worshipping the Grand Lama, as he was induced to believe most of the accounts he had read and heard of it were fabulous. I described the impression Mr. Manning had made on me

by his imposing appearance. His dress was like that of a Mandarin and he wore a long black beard which reached to his waist. He had, during the war, been a prisoner in France, and had been treated with great clemency by Napoleon. Thus was each party anxious to see the other. Mr. Manning had brought many very curious presents for Napoleon, which he had collected in his travels.

He obtained a pass to see the Emperor. He said he had been presented to the Lama, who was a very intelligent boy of seven years old, that he had gone through the same forms as the other worshippers who were admitted to the celestial presence. Napoleon asked him if you were not afraid of being seized. as a spy. The traveler did not seem pleased that the emperor should have thought that this appearance should have conveyed such an impression, but he laughingly pointed to his beard and dress and seemed much diverted with his interview. He could not think how they, jealous as they were in their

religious rights, should have admitted an unbeliever into their sacred temple and have permitted him to approach the llama. Mr. Manning said he honored and respected all religions, as did Napoleon. The Emperor wished to know if he had passed for an Englishman as the shape of his nose was too good for a tartar. Mr. Manning replied that he had been taken for a Hindu, which from the regularity of his features and fine eyes might easily have been the case. Napoleon told him that travellers were privileged to tell marvellous stories,

and he hoped he was not doing so in relating the wonders of Tibet. He wanted to know if it were true that the revenues of the Grand Lama were derived from the gifts of the multitudes that daily flocked from all parts to worship at his shrine, as well as from priestly extortion. Manning told the emperor it was quite true, and complimented him upon being as well informed as the traveler himself. The Lama was subject to the Chinese. He never married, neither did his priest, the body into which according to their belief the spirit passed was found out by the priests from certain signs. Napoleon's conference with the traveler lasted some time. He asked a thousand questions

respecting the Chinese, their language, customs, etc. When the interview was concluded, he observed it had given him greater pleasure than he had experienced for many long months. Seventeen Unseppelkurd they roamed and shrieked each wandering ghost. Upon one occasion, Sir George Bingham gave a grand ball to all the people on the island as a sort of return for civilities

shown to him and his officers of the 53rd regiment. It was the prettiest thing. of the kind, and the best one I ever remember either before or since. And as the scene of Revel was close to Longwood, we were told the Emperor had the curiosity to take a peep at it incognito. I verily believe he had, from the faithful and animated detail he entered into respecting it the next day, and his criticisms upon dancing, dress, etc. The first attempt at waltzing was made on that occasion in the sarah band, and he took off a certain

young lady's graceless movement so inimitably that we, we were, you. He felt sure he had indulged himself with a peep. Sergei Cockburn had a beautiful dog of the Newfoundland breed, which was a great favorite, both from its beauty and docility. It was very fond of accompanying its noble master whenever he honored the briars with a visit, for the place abounded with ponds and rivulets in which Tom Pipe delighted to swim and cool himself after following at the horse's heels up the mountain under a sultry tropical sun. One time, as Napoleon was engaged making notes in the

the garden of the briars, close to a large pond full of gold and silverfish, I called the dog to have a gamble and refresh himself with a bath. Well, knowing his custom was to shake his huge sides after ducking, and then woe betide the person nearest him whilst this operation was performing, they were sure to have their clothes completely saturated. Such was now the case, for Pipes enjoyed his bath immensely and dived and ducked about much to the consternation of the golden silverfish. When he thought he had a lot of the gold and silverfish, when he thought he was a had enough, he scrambled up the bank, took his place by the emperor's side, who was so much absorbed by his employment as to be unaware of the shower-bath in store for him, and it was not

until a vigorous shake of the dog and a plentiful besprinkling all over dress and person that he found out the mischief of which I had been the cause. The paper on which he had written was spoiled, and he presented a very deplorable figure himself. It was impossible to help laughing although he was very angry, for Tom Pipes would not go away. He had been a shipmate of Napoleon's on board the Northumberland, and was so glad to see him again that he kept jumping on him with his wet paws, thereby adding mud to wet and dust. One morning as we were walking, or rather scrambling among the rocks that close in the waterfall near the briars, we espied something hanging over the ledge of a rock above us which had the

appearance of a soldier in his uniform. The height was so great and the precipice so perfect, that it was an utter impossibility for us to attempt scaling it, to ascertain what it could be. But still, it looked so strange in the position of the man, if man it were, so perilous, that we determined on returning to the cottage to send force someone of the bolder heart and steadier nerves than our party possessed, who might throw a light upon the mysterious occupant of the rocky ledge. On our way we encountered Count Lecaz and the emperor, whose curiosity had also been directed to the object which had excited our attention. He had had seen it from his pavilion and was reconnoitering it with his little spy-glass, the same with

which he viewed the Battle of Waterloo. We asked him what he thought it could be. He looked grave and replied, we had better return to the house and remain there for a time, as we might probably be shocked at a scene which he doubted not would soon present itself. He had discovered, by the aid of his glass, that the object which had raised our curiosity was the corpse of a soldier who must have met his death by some dreadful accident. His conjecture, was soon ascertained to be too true. A soldier had obtained leave of absence the night before for a few hours and was to have been back by sunset. He outstayed his leave, beguiling time with some old comrades, and had perhaps indulged too freely at the shrine of Bacchus.

But, be that as it may, on finding he had exceeded his time and being well aware of the severe discipline necessarily maintained at this time on the island, he had tried to reach his barrack by a shortcut, missed his footing, and was precipitated over the ledge, falling from a height of at least one hundred feet. We were all in a state of the most painful excitement during the ceremony of the coroner's inquest which was held on the dead man. I recollect Napoleon did not lose that occasion of hinting to my father that if the poor soldier had sat less time after dinner, he probably would not have met with so dreadful of fate. About that time there was quite a chapter of tragical accidents, one of which has flashed on my mind.

My young brother had a kind of tutor, Fort de Mieux, a curious character whose name was Huff. He had been an inhabitant of the island, I believe, at that time, nearly half a century. This old man, since the arrival of Napoleon, had taken many strange fancies into his brain, among others, that he was destined to restore the fallen hero to his pristine glory, and that he could at any time free him from thraldom. All argument with this old man upon the folly of his ravings was useless. He still persisted in it, and it soon became evident that Old Huff was mad, and though strictly watched, he found an opportunity one fatal morning to destroy himself.

An inquest was held on him, Felo de Cé returned as verdict, for there was much method evinced in his madness, and his body was ordered to be interred in the spot where three crossroads met. The nearest to the scene where the act was committed was the road leading to the briars, and there they buried the old man. I had, amongst many other follies, a terror of ghosts, and this weakness was well known to the Emperor, who, for a considerable time after the suicide of poor Huff, used to frighten me nearly into fits. Every night, just before my hour of retiring to my room, he would call out, Miss Betsy,

O'Lhoff, O'Huff! The misery of those nights I shall never forget. I used generally to fly out of my bed during the night and scramble into my mother's room and to remain there till morning's light dispelled the terrors of darkness. One evening when my mother, my sister and myself, were quietly sitting in the porch of the cottage

enjoying the coolness of the night breeze, suddenly we heard a noise, and turning round beheld a figure in white. How I screamed! We were then greeted with a low, gruff laugh which my mother instantly knew to be the emperors. She turned the white covering, and underneath appeared the black visage of a little servant of ours, whom Napoleon had instigated to frighten Miss Betsy, while he was himself a spectator of the effect of his trick.

This pleasantry of Napoleon's gave rise soon after to a ghost scene, which was enacted to the life by one of our runaway slaves of the name of Alley. He had been missing for many weeks and had eluded all search. Pigs, poultry, bread, all the contents of the larder nightly disappeared no one knew how. But the servants affirmed that a figure in white was seen hovering around the valley and skipping from rock to rock. They were so alarmed, none would venture out singly. Days and weeks went on, Napoleon's cook complaining in common with hours of depredations committed on his cuisine, and not having the benefit of a market to replace the loss, it was a matter of no small annoyance. I firmly believed it to be Huff's ghost, and became quite ill from sleepless nights being literally afraid to close my eyes.

At length, after repeated unsuccessful watching, my father and some friends saw figures tealing along the valley which led towards the house. They watched it uninterruptedly until it appeared within hail, and upon receiving no answer to their challenge, they fired in the direction. A scream soon told the effect of their shot. Hastening to the spot, they beheld a Negro slave whom they discovered to be their runaway alley. The poor boy was much hurt, though not mortally. When daylight came, they repaired to his haunt, which was the most ingeniously contrived cave, nature ever formed. Imperceptible until you came close to it, the entrance being low and covered by a sheltering rock. There he had lived for weeks close to his master and had nightly prowled about,

lightning our larders and robbing the hen-roosts. Napoleon entered the cave with us and seemed much diverted at the piles of bones collected and neatly arranged by the slave, after he had dispose of their various integments. He said it reminded him of one of the catacombs in Paris. I recollect exhibiting to Napoleon a caricature of him in the act of climbing a ladder. Each step he ascended represented some vanquished country. At length he was seated astride upon the world. It was a famous toy, and, by a dexterous trick, Napoleon appeared on the contrary side, tumbling down, head over heels, and after a perilous descent, alighting on St. Helena. i ought not to have shown him this burlesque on his misfortunes but at that time i was guilty of every description of mad action though without any intention of being unkind still i fear they were often deeply felt

my father of whom i always stood in awe heard of my rudeness and desired me to consider myself under arrest for at least a week and i was transferred from the drawing-room to a dark cellar and there left to solitude and repentance i did not soon forget that punishment for the excavations swarmed with rats that leaped about me on all sides. I was half dead with horror, and should most certainly have been devoured alive by the vermin had I not in despair seized a bottle of wine and dashed it amongst my assailants. Finding that I succeeded in occasioning a momentary panic, I continued to diminish the pile of claret near me and kept my enemies at bay. As the first faint light of morning dawned through my prison bars, I was startled to perceive what my victory would cause my father, for I was surrounded by heaps of broken bottles and rivulets of wine, and either from exhaustion or the exhalation from the saturated ground of the cellar, I was found by the slave who brought me

my breakfast in the morning in a state of stupor from which I was with difficulty aroused. My father was too happy at my escape to blame me for the means I resorted to to preserve myself from hungry foes, and I was forgiven my ill-judged pleasantry to the emperor. The latter expressed regret at my severe punishment for. for so trifling an offense, but was much amused by my relation of the battle with the rats. He said he had been startled by observing a huge one jumping out of his hat as he was in the act of putting it on. On a subsequent occasion I was confined during the day in the same prison that had been the scene of my nocturnal encounter. Having excited my father's ire for some mischievous trick and for which, in spite of Napoleon's remonstrances,

I was to be condemned to a week's imprisonment, I was taken to my cell every morning and released at night. only to go to bed. The Emperor's great amusement during that time was to converse with me through my grated window, and he generally succeeded in making me laugh by mimicking my dolorous countenance. He was much surprised and amused to find me on the third day of my imprisonment busily employed making myself a dress, and was more astonished still when I told him it was a voluntary act, that I had, in a fit of desperation at the dullness of my sejour in the cellar, begged my old black nurse Sarah to give me some work. I regret that my fate of industry did not survive the term of my incarceration.

The emperor advised my mother to keep the dress I had made during my imprisonment and occasionally exhibited to me when I was contemplating any rash act which might bring down a renewal of my late punishment. He always denominated it, the prison livery. End of Chapter 16 and 17. Chapter 18 and 19 of recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena by Elizabeth Valcom Abel. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Eighteen

Who goes there? Stranger? Quickly tell. A friend. The word. Good night. All's well. Napoleon was a tolerable mimic. One day he asked my sister if she had ever heard of the London cries.

On her replying she had, he began immit. imitating them very much to our diversion. He did it well in all, save the pronunciation of the English, which sounded very droll. My sister said she was sure he must have visited England incognito to have acquired them so perfectly. He said he had been much entertained by one of his Bufot actors introducing the cries of London in some comedy which was got up in Paris. Napoleon was a great admirer of Talma. He said he was the truest actor to nature that ever trot the boards. He was on very intimate and familiar footing with him. I told him I had heard he took lessons from Talma how he was to sit on his throne.

He said he had often been asked if such had been the case in that he one day mentioned the report to the great actor at the same time remarking to him, He often spoke of Mademoiselle Georges, whom he represented as being very talented and transcendently beautiful. One morning after having been to a ball and being consequently very tired,

I tried in vain during one of my longwood promenades to find where the emperor had hidden himself. I was told he was superintending a ditch which was forming for him that he might have a walk free from molestation. Thither I bent my steps and discovered Napoleon contemplating the work with arms folded and downcast gaze.

He said he intended having a private walk where he could not be overlooked and for that purpose had directed the ditch to be constructed. It was so laughable an idea that we could not help smiling at a man's having a ditch to promenade in, but so it was. The work was completed soon after, and he had an unobserved walk which, when made, we were told he never used. I think my memory in this instance has not failed me. After the earthquake, from sitting on the steps of the veranda, I caught a violent cold

and was sneezing and coughing all the morning. Napoleon said the climate was so bad it was not to be wondered at, and that we ought to have fireplaces made at the briars, to keep out the cold in the wintery season. I told him it would be useless as there were no coals on our island. He said we had better than burn some of the orange trees. He was in a bad humor that morning, or he would never have affronted us so much by bidding us destroy our garden and grub up our beautiful orange trees to burn. I remember one of Napoleon's favorite contemplations was the history of great men who had figured in bygone days. He told me an anecdote of Cardinal Richelieu, much at the time it was repeated to us. It was during the days of his, I may call it

sovereignty, that a nobleman who waited upon him about his affairs of importance was ushered into his private cabinet. Whilst they were conversing together, a great personage was announced and entered the room. After some conversation with the cardinal, the great man took his leave, and Elishaloo, in compliment to him, attended him to his carriage, forgetting that he had left the other alone in the cabinet. On his return to his room he rang a bell, when he was a of his confidential secretaries entered, to whom he whispered something. He then conversed with the other very freely, appeared to take an interest in his affairs, kept him in conversation for a short time, accompanied him to the door, shook hands with him,

and took leave of him in the most friendly way, telling him he might make his mind easy as he had determined to provide for him. The poor man departed highly satisfied and full of thanks and gratitude. As he was going out of the door he was arrested, not allowed to speak to anyone and conveyed in a coach to the bastie, where he was kept Osecre for ten years. At the expiration of which time the Cardinal sent for him, and expressed his great regret at having been obliged to adopt the step he had taken, that he had no cause of complaint against him.

On the contrary, he believed him to be a good subject to his majesty. But the fact was, he had left a paper on his table when he quitted the room containing state accounts of vast importance, which he was afraid he might have perused in his absence. that the safety of the kingdom demanded they should not be divulged and obliged him to adopt measures to prevent the possibility of the contents being known that as soon as the safety of the country permitted he had released him was sorry and begged his pardon for the uneasiness he had caused him and would be happy to make him some amends the commissary general of st helena was a great favourite with everyone who had the pleasure of being acquainted with him he was most amusing and very clever he established a theatre on the island and the amateur plays performed by him, assisted by the officers of the 53rd and 66th regiment stationed there, rendered the Little Island a scene of Gady and continued merriment. What, with the races,

balls, plays, and picnics, sham fights by sea and lan, etc., there was scarcely a day undiversified by some amusement or other. On one memorable occasion, Mr. T. invited a large party to picnic at his house. Nearly all the inhabitants St. Helena contained, who delighted in those pleasurable amusements were there. The house was situated near the celebrated Friars Valley, at a great distance from any of the dwellings of the people bidden to the fayt, and the roads leading there too must be seen to be conceived. No language, however romantic in its flight could impress the reader with the varied dangers and difficulties with which they abounded, and the temptation must indeed have been

great to induce a timid horsewoman to encounter them. The ride there, I recollect, was comparatively easy. was so delightful and the weather so charming the time was beguiled and the hours unnumbered stole on till the faint echo of the ladder-hill gun stole on our startled senses for it told the guests there assembled that the ninth hour had struck and without the countersign none must venture forth unless they made up their minds to be taken prisoners and confined for the night in the first guard-house they came near a consultation was held and the most daring of the party declared the risk of returning home must be run. Amongst the boldest of these was my father, and being under his command, my mother and sister

with myself, and a large proportion of the guests mounted their horses and set forward. The night was starlight, but the road so bad and unfrequented that though for a long while the sentries placed about the heights were eluded our way was lost. I shall never forget the scrambling and tumbling about, the horse's feet tripping under them every moment over loose stones. At length, my father hailed a light which appeared at a short distance before us, a most unlucky circumstance. He was answered by a sentry presenting his musket and demanding, who goes there? A friend, says my father. Advance, friend, and give me the countersign. But no countersign had we, and to the alarm house we were all marched, a guardroom placed between

Longwood and the briars. We passed up. a wretched night in the little hole eaten up by fleas, mosquitoes, and all sorts of horrible things. But the most disagreeable was the quizzing we were obliged to endure from our acquaintance, who had been wise enough to stay at Cruz Plain instead of being so foolhardy as to venture forth. Napoleon was highly diverted, and rather pleased with the opportunity it gave him for abusing the strict watch which was set to prevent the possibility of his escaping. 19 Had the sword laid thee with the mighty low,

Pride might forbid Ian friendship to complain, But thus unluraled to descend in vain, While glory crowned so many a meaner crest, Byron The thoughtlessness of youth, or the consciousness of being a privileged person, prompted me more than once whilst conversing with Napoleon, To touch upon tender if not actually forbidden ground, and to question him about some of the many cruel acts assigned to him.

Entrothre, the butchery of the Turkish prisoners at Jaffa, and the poisoning the sick in hospital at the same place, came one day on the tapy. I remember well his own explanation of the latter report, which, though an old tale and often told, may not prove the less interesting on that account when recorded as far as my memory serves me in the emperor's own words. Before leaving Jaffa, said Napoleon.

and when many of the Sikh had been embarked. I was informed that there were some in hospital wounded beyond recovery, dangerously ill, and unfit to be moved at any risk. I desired my medical men to hold a consultation as to what steps had best be taken with regard to the unfortunate sufferers and to send in their opinions to me. The result of this consultation was that seven-eighths of the soldiers were considered past recovery,

and that in all probability few would be alive at the expanse. of twenty hours. Moreover, some were afflicted with the plague, and to carry those onward would threaten the whole army with infection, and spread death wherever they appeared without ameliorating their own sufferings, or increasing their chance of recovery, which indeed in such cases was hopeless. On the other hand, to leave them behind was abandoning them to the cruelty of the Turks, who always made it a rule to murder their prisoners with protracted torture. In this, emergency, I submitted to Dijanette the propriety of ending the misery of these victims by a dose of opium. I would have desired such a relief for myself under the same circumstances.

I considered it would be an act of mercy to anticipate their fate by only a few hours, ensuring them an end free from pain and oblivious of the horrors which surrounded and threatened them rather than a death of dreadful torture. My physician did not enter into my views of the case and disapproved of the case. of the proposal saying that his profession was to cure, not to kill. Accordingly, I left a rear guard to protect these unhappy men from the advancing enemy, and they remained till nature had paid her last debt and released the expiring soldiers from their agony. Such is the true and now, almost universally acknowledged version of this atrocious story.

Not that I think it would have been a crime, Napoleon observed, had opium been administered. On the contrary, I think it is a crime. would have been a virtue. To leave a few miserable who could not recover in order that they might be massacred according to the custom of the Turks, with the most dreadful tortures, would I think have been cruelty? Nor would any man under similar circumstances who had the free use of his senses have hesitated to prefer dying easily a few hours sooner, rather than expire under the tortures of those barbarians? I ask you, Omera, to place yourself in the situation of one of these men, and were it demanded of you which fate you would select, either to be left to suffer

the tortures of those miscreants, or to have opium administered to you, which would you rather choose? If my own son, and I believe I love my son as well as any father does his child, were in a similar situation, I would advise it to be done, and if so situated myself, I would insist upon it if I had sense enough and strength to demand it. Do you think if I had incapable of secretly poisoning my soldiers, or of such barbarities, as have been ascribed to me, of driving my carriage over the mutilated and bleeding bodies of the wounded, that my troops would have fought under me with the enthusiasm and affection they uniformly displayed? No, no, I should have been shot long ago. Even my wounded would have tried to pull a trigger to dispatch me.

It is to be regretted that the conscience of Napoleon did not prompt him. to feel or say with Richard III. In all mankind, to some lovedills incline. Great men choose greater things. Ambitions mine. There are many reasons why the worst features of this report were at first readily believed. It was consistent with Napoleon's character

to look at results rather than at the measures that were to produce them, and to consider in many cases the end as an excuse for the means. Besides, not three months before, he had given the world a fearful example of how bloody a deed he was capable when he considered it necessary to the furtherance of his own plans. The execution of the Turkish prisoners at Jaffa was equal in cruelty, though not an extent to the fusilades of the revolution. Besides which, it was unjustifiable by the usages of war, the Turks having given up their arms and surrendered

themselves prisoners of war on condition of safety of life, at least. It is true that this dreadful deed will always remain a deep stain upon Napoleon's character, but it would be uncharitable to view it as the indulgence of an innate love of cruelty, for nothing in Bonaparte's history shows the existence of such a vice. It was one of the numerous and sad results of boundless ambition united to unlimited power. In aiming at gigantic undertakings, he forgot to calculate the waste of human life which the execution of his projects necessarily involved. There was a lady, the wife of an officer in the 66th regiment, a Mrs. Baird, who sang and played very well. Among her favorite songs was a monody upon the Duke d'Angain.

I learned this and sang it to Napoleon one day at Madame Bertrand's. He was pleased with the air and asked me what it was. I shoot it to him. There was a vignette on the cover of the music, representing a man standing in a ditch with a bandage round his eyes and a lantern tied to his waist. In front of him several soldiers with their muskets leveled in the act of firing. he asked what it meant i told him it was intended to represent the murder of the duke d'anguin he looked at the print with great interest and asked me what i knew about it i told him he was considered the murderer of that illustrious prince he said in reply it was true he had ordered his execution for he was a conspirator and had landed troops in the pay of the bourbons to assassinate him and he thought from such a conspiracy he could not act in a more politic manner than by causing one of their own princes to be put to death in order the more effectually to deter them from attempting his life again

that the prisoner was tried for having borne arms against the republic and was executed according to the existing laws but not as here represented in a ditch and and at night. There was nothing secret in the transaction. All was public and open. I told him I had heard that he wore armor under his dress to render him invulnerable, as he was continually in dread of assassination and that he never slept two nights together in the same bedroom. He told us all these things were fabrications, but that he ever adopted one rule, never to make public his intention whether he meant to go five minutes before he actually took his departure, and he doubted not many conspirators. were thus foiled, as they were ignorant where he was at any time to be found.

There was a sculptor named Caracci, a corsican, who had once made a statue of him, and who at one time had been strongly attached to Napoleon, but, having become a fanatical Republican determined to kill him. For that purpose, he went to Paris and begged to be allowed to model another statue for him, saying, the first was not as well done as he could have desired. Napoleon, little thinking this man meant to assassinate him, only refused his sent because he did not like the trouble of sitting in the same posture for some days. This saved his life, as it was Karachi's intention to have poniarded him whilst sitting. Another time, a letter was sent to inform the emperor that a certain person was to leave

at a stated time for Paris, where he would arrive on a day indicated in the letter, his intentions being to murder him. The police took measures and watched him. He arrived on the day noted and was seen to enter a chapel whether Napoleon had gone in celebration of some festival. He was arrested and expressed his intentions and said when the people knelt down on the elevation of the host, he observed the emperor gazing on a beautiful woman. At first he intended to advance and fire, but upon reflection thought it would make it sure to stab him when coming out of the chapel. I forgave the wretch, for I never liked to execute if I could save life, and merely ordered him to be put in confinement. After leaving France for Elba, I heard he had been

ill-treated by the other party at the head of affairs and had escaped. On my return to Paris from Elba, retiring one night to my chamber, the same man somehow or other obtained entrance. By some accident he fell, and the foul caused something in his pocket, which was intended to dispatch me to explode, wounded him so severely instead that he nearly died. I heard afterwards that he had thrown himself into the seine and was drowned. End of chapters 18 and 19. Chapter 20 and 21 of recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena by Elizabeth Balcom Abel.

This Librevox recording is in the public domain. 20. Farewell. A word that must be and hath been. A sound which makes us linger. Yet, farewell. Byron. In consequence of my mother's health declining

from the enfeebling effects of the too warm climate, of St. Helena, she was ordered by her medical advisor to try a voyage to England as the only means of restoring her shattered constitution. The Winchelsea store ship having arrived from China, my father took our passage on board obtaining first from Sir Hudson Lowe, six months' leave of absence from his duties as purveyor to Napoleon and his suite, etc. A day or two before we embarked, my father, my sister, and myself, rode to Longwood to bid adieu to the emperor. He was in his billiard room surrounded by books which had arrived a few days before. He seemed much depressed at our leaving the island and said he sincerely regretted the cause.

He hoped, my dear mother's health would soon be restored and sent many affectionate messages to her, she being too ill to accompany us to Longwood. When we had sat with him some time, he walked with us in his garden, and with a sickly smile pointed to the ocean spread out before us bounding the view and said, soon you will be sailing away towards England, leaving me to die on this miserable rock. Look at those dreadful mountains. They are my prison walls. You will soon hear that the Emperor Napoleon is dead. I burst into tears and sobbed as though my heart would break. He seemed to much moved at the sorrow manifested by us. I had left my handkerchief in the pocket of my

side-saddle and seeing the tears run fast down my cheeks, Napoleon. Napoleon took his own from his pocket and wiped them away, telling me to keep the handkerchief in remembrance of that sad day. We afterwards returned and dined with him. My heart was too full of grief to swallow, and when pressed by Napoleon to eat some of my favorite bonbons and creams, I told him my throat had a great swelling in it and I could take nothing. The hour of bidding adieu came at last. He affectionately embraced my sister and myself and bad us not forget him, adding that he should ever remember our friendship and kindness to him,

and thanked us again and again for all the happy hours he had passed in our society. He asked me what I should like to have in remembrance of him. I replied I should value a lock of his hair more than any other gift he could present. He then sent for Monsieur Marchand, and desired him to bring in a pair of scissors and cut off four locks of hair for my father and mother, my sister, and myself, which he did. I still possess that lock of hair. It is all left me of the many tokens of remembrance of the great emperor. 21.

My task is done. Would it were worthier? In concluding my brief record of Napoleon, I will spare my readers any lengthened expression of my own opinion of his character. I have placed before them the greater part of what occurred while I was in his society and have thus given them as far as I am able the same means of judging him as I myself possess. But yet in a person, personal intercourse incidents occur of too trivial or subtle a nature to be communicated to others but which are still the truest indications of character from being the result of impulse and unpremeditated

even a look a tone of the voice a gesture in an unreserved moment will give an insight into the real disposition which years of a more formal intercourse would fail to convey and this is particularly the case in the association of a person of mature age with very young people there is generally a confiding candor and openness about them which invites confidence in return and which tempts a man of the world to throw off the iron mask of reserve and caution and to assume once more the simplicity of a little child this at least took place in my intercourse with napoleon and i may therefore perhaps venture to say a few words on the general impression he left on my mind after three months daily communication with him the point of character which has more than any other been a subject of dispute between napoleon's friends and his enemies and which will ever be the most important of all in the estimation of a woman is whether he furnished another proof of the close affinity between supertative intellect and the warmth of the generous affections to use the words of the reverent crab in his delightful life of his father or whether he must be considered only as a consummate calculating machine the reasoning power perfect but the heart altogether absent bourienne who although conscientious and exact in the main exhibits no partiality to the emperor describes him as trepusement and reports that he once said i have no friend except duroc who is unfeeling and cold and suits me and this may have been true in his intercourse with the world and with men whom he was accustomed to consider as mere machines, the instruments of his glory and ambition, and whom he therefore valued in proportion to the sternness of the stuff of which

they were composed. Even his brothers, whom he is said to have included in this sweeping abnegation of friendship, he taught himself to look upon as the means of carrying out his ambitious projects. And, as they were not always subservient to his will, but came at times into political collision with him, his fraternal affection which seldom resisted the rude shocks of contending worldly interests was cooled and weakened in the struggle. But my own conviction is that unless Napoleon's ambition to which every other consideration was sacrificed interfered, he was possessed of much sensibility and feeling and was capable of strong attachment. The Duchess of Debrantes, who was intimately acquainted with Napoleon at an early age, gives him credit

for much more warmth of heart than is allowed to him by the world, and brought up as she had been with himself and his family, she was well qualified to form an opinion of him. I think his love of children and the delight he felt in their society, and that too, at the most calamitous period of his life, when a cold and unattachable nature would have been abandoned to the indulgence of selfish misery, in itself speaks volumes for his goodness of heart.

After hours of laborious occupation, he would often permit us to join him, and that which would have fatigued and exhausted the spirit of others seemed only to recruit and renovate him. His gaiety was often exuberant at these moments. He entered into all the feelings of young people, and when with them was a mere child, and I may add, a most amusing one.

I feel, however, even painfully, the difficulty of conveying to my readers my own impression of the disposition of Napoleon. Matters of feeling are often incapable of demonstration. the innumerable acts of amiability and kindness which he lavished on all around him at my father's house derived perhaps their chief charm from the way in which they were done they would not bear being told apart from the sweetness of his smile and manner their effect would have been comparatively nothing but young people are generally keen observers of character their perceptive faculties are ever on the alert and their powers of observation not the less acute perhaps because their reason lies dormant and there is nothing to interrupt the exercise of their perceptions and after seeing napoleon in every possible mood and in his most unguarded moments when i am sure from his manner that the idea of acting apart never entered his head i left him impressed with the most complete conviction of his want of guile and the thorough amiability and goodness of his heart that this feeling was common to almost every one who approached him the respect and devotion of his followers at st helena is a sufficient proof they had then nothing more to expect from him and only entailed misery on themselves by a

adhering to his fortunes. Shortly after he left the briars for Longwood, I was witness to an instance of the reverence with which he was regarded by those around him. A lady of high distinction at St. Helena, whose husband filled one of the diplomatic offices there, rode up one morning to the briars. I happened to be on the lawn

and she requested me to show her the part of the cottage occupied by the emperor. I conducted her to the pavilion which she surveyed with intense interest. But when I pointed out to her the crown which had been cut from the turf by his faithful adherence, she lost all control over her feelings. Bursting into a fit of passionate weeping, she sank on her knees upon the ground, sobbing hysterically. At last she fell forward and I became quite alarmed, and would have run to the

cottage to tell my mother and procure some restoratives, but starting up, she implored me in a voice broken by emotion to call no one, for that she should soon be herself again. She entreated me not to mention to anyone what had occurred, and proceeded to say that the memory of Napoleon was treasured in the hearts of the French people as it was in hers, and that they would all willingly die for him. She was herself a French woman, and very beautiful. She recovered herself after some time and put a thousand questions to me about Napoleon, the answers to which seemed to interest her exceedingly. She said several times, how happy it must have made you to be with the Emperor.

After a long interview, she put a thick veil down over her still agitated features, and returning to her horse mounted and rode away. For once, I kept a secret, and though questioned on the subject I merely said she had come to see the pavilion without betraying what had taken place. Napoleon, on his first arrival, showed an inclination to mix in what little society St. Helena afforded, and would, I think, have continued to do so, but for the unhappy differences with Sir Hudson Lowe. These at length grew to such a height that the Emperor seemed to consider

it almost a point of honor to shut himself up, and make himself as miserable as possible in order to excite indignation against the Governor. Into the merits of these quarrels it is not my intention to enter. With all my feeling of partiality for the Emperor,

I have often doubted whether any human being could have failed the situation of Sir Hudson Lowe without becoming embroiled with his unhappy captive. The very title by which he was accosted, and the manner of addressing him, when contrasted with the devotion of those around him, must have seemed almost insulting. And the emperor was most brusque, and uncompromising in showing his dislike to anyone who did not please him. The necessary restrictions on his personal liberty would always have been a fruitful source of discord. And even had Napoleon himself been inclined to

submit to his faith with equanimity, it is doubtful whether his followers would have permitted him to do so. Acustomed as they had been to the gaiety and brilliancy of the French capital, their sejour, to use their own words on that lone island, could not fail to be afreux. And as they were generally the medium of communication between Napoleon and the authorities, the correspondence would necessarily be tinged with more or less of the bitterness of their respective feelings. Their very devotion to the emperor would make them too tenacious and exacting with regard to the deference to which his situation entitled him, and thus, or orders and regulations which only seemed to the authorities indispensable to his security became a crime in their eyes and were represented to the emperor as gratuitous and cruel insults

napoleon too in the absence of everything more worthy of supplying food to his mighty intellect did not disdain to interest himself in the merest trifles my father has often described him as appearing as much absorbed and occupied in the details of some petty squabble with the governor as if the fate of empires had been under discussion He has often made us laugh with his account of the ridiculous way in which Napoleon spoke of Sir Hudson-Lowe. But their disputes were generally on subjects so trivial that I deem it my duty to draw a veil over these last infirmities of so noble a mind. One circumstance, however, I may relate. Napoleon, wishing to learn English, procured some English books. Amongst them, Esop's fables were sent him. In one of the fables, the sick lion, after submitting with fortitude to the insults of the many animals who came to exult over his fallen greatness, at last received a kick in the face from the ass. I could have borne everything but this, the lion said.

Napoleon showed the woodcut and added, It is me and your governor. Amongst other accusations against Napoleon, some writers have said that he was deficient in courage. He always gave me the idea, on the contrary, of being constitutionally fearless. I have already mentioned his feats of horsemanship, and the speed with which his carriage.

generally tore along the narrow mountainous roads of St. Helena would have been intolerable to a timid person. I have more than once seen gentlemen whose horses were rather skittish when the emperor approached them at a rapid pace, compelled to turn and gallop rapidly for some distance before him, to their great annoyance, until they reached an open space where they could pass his carriage without danger of their horses shying and going down a precipice. He had a description of jaunting car to which he yoked three cape horses abreast in the French style, and if he got anyone into this, he seldom let his victim out until he had frightened him heartily.

One day he told General Gogod to make his horse rear and put his forefeet into the carriage to my great terror. He seemed indeed to possess no nerves himself and to laugh at the existence of fear in others. Napoleon, as far as I was capable of judging, could not be considered fond of literature. He seldom introduced the topic in conversation,

and I suspect his reading was confined all most solely to scientific subjects. I have heard him speak slightingly of poets and called them Révaire, and still I believe the most visionary of them all was the only one he ever perused. But his own vast and undefined schemes of ambition seem to have found something congenial in the dreamy sublimities of ocean. End of chapters 20 and 21. End of recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena by Elizabeth Balcom Mabel.