Napoleon's Young Neighbor Part 12

There, on one side, was the silver wash-hand basin and ewer, and on the mantelpiece over the bed was a portrait of Maria Louisa, so placed as to be the first thing to meet Napoleon's eye when he awoke in the morning.

Off the bedroom was a small chamber with a bath that he showed to them.

A dressing-room, dining-room, billiard and drawing room made up the Emperor's own special suite. The billiard-room, which had been built according to Sir George c.o.c.kburn's orders, was large and well proportioned. It was the best apartment in the house, and the girls expressed their admiration for it, although Betsy, when her eye fell on the billiard table and b.a.l.l.s, thought the game a foolish one for men to play.

"Now to the kitchen!" Napoleon exclaimed, at last. "M. Piron will be so pleased. Aha, Piron, here is Mees Betsee; you know how she loves creams.

Send her some and some bonbons. See, _regardez, mademoiselle, voila un mouton pour mon diner, dont on fait une lanterne_," pointing to the lean carca.s.s of a sheep hanging up in the kitchen, in which the French servants had placed a candle which shone through. "But I know," he continued, "you are dying to see the baby;" and the sisters went with him to Madame Montholon's apartment to see her six-weeks-old girl.

Napoleon took his little G.o.d-daughter in his arms.

"Oh, you will let it fall!" cried Betsy as he dandled it clumsily.

"No, no! See, it will let me do anything with it;" and he pinched little Lili's nose and chin until she cried.

"You do not know how to hold a baby," protested Betsy.

"But I ought to know," responded Napoleon with a twinkle of amus.e.m.e.nt in his eye. "Often and often I have nursed the King of Rome when he was younger than Lili."

After leaving the baby and Madame Montholon, the little girls went with Napoleon to the garden outside.

"It is not like The Briars," the Emperor said, shaking his head sadly.

"I should say not;" and Betsy looked from the bare surroundings of the house to the rugged mountain near by with its scraggly vegetation of wild samphire, p.r.i.c.kly pears and aloes, its iron-covered rocks, with sharp cliffs and mysterious caves overshadowing the house.

Napoleon's momentary sadness may have come from his casual allusion to his son, the little King of Rome, the child whom he was never to see again. Those who observed him when any allusion was made to his child were always sure that Napoleon's heart held great fatherly affection.

Once when he had been a trifle downcast, Dr. O'Meara told him an anecdote he had heard about the child. Immediately Napoleon smiled with great animation and his face brightened. At other times when the conversation turned on the child, he grew perceptibly sadder.

His love for his own child made Napoleon undoubtedly more interested in all children, and he was never ashamed, as some men are, to show this interest in the children of his friends.

This first visit to Longwood was in every way delightful to the sisters, not only because there was much to see that was new to them in the arrangement of the house and grounds, but because they found the Emperor in one of his most boyish moods.

"Now, ladies," he said, as the time for their return approached, "send your horses off. They can meet you at Hutsgate, and I will take a drive with you, if you will honor my jaunting car."

Hutsgate was the residence of Madame Bertrand, where Mrs. Balcombe and her daughters intended to call before returning to The Briars.

"Yes," answered Betsy after a moment's hesitation, "we will drive with you." She was not fond of driving, but did not dare to expose her timidity to the ridicule of the Emperor.

Hardly, however, had they started off when she felt that her fears were justified. The daring Archambaud was their charioteer, and he drove three unbroken Cape horses abreast.

"This is the most dangerous road for driving on the island. No wonder they call it the Devil's Punchbowl," cried poor Betsy. As she spoke, the carriage seemed to be tipping over the edge of the declivity. Those nearer the edge were in mortal terror, and the others looked as if they would be crushed against the huge rock.

"You are not frightened, are you, Mees Betsee?" asked Napoleon mischievously. "Of course it is a narrow road; I only hope the horses are not running away. They seem rather wild."

Thankful enough was Betsy to arrive at Madame Bertrand's without accident, and when she started for home she was more than eager to mount her own quiet pony, Tom. She was not fond of driving over the dangerous roads, and for a jaunting car she had a special dislike. Napoleon, knowing this, could not resist the opportunity to tease her. Betsy, indeed, was not the only one whom he liked to terrify by getting Archambaud to display his reckless driving. It seemed, indeed, as if his guest, as well as the Emperor, always took his life in his hands when driving in the jaunting car.

On a second visit not long after the first, when Betsy and Jane arrived at Longwood, they found the Emperor firing at a target. He put the pistol in Betsy's hands, saying, "Ah, _la Pet.i.te Tirailleuse_, I will form a company of sharpshooters and you shall be captain."

A little later he took her to the billiard-room and showed her the billiard table.

"It is a silly game for men," she said in her positive way, "too much like marbles. I wouldn't play it."

"Oh, do try," urged the Emperor; but wilful Betsy replied only by aiming the ball at his fingers, as he rested his hand on the board.

Later, however, the sisters learned to play the game, and at the billiard table they pa.s.sed many an hour.

Napoleon himself taught Betsy how to handle a cue, but, when tired of the lesson, she would often aim at his fingers, and she was always delighted when a well-directed shot made him cry out.

The visits of Betsy and her sisters gave pleasure to the fallen great man; still, as time went on, they could not help noticing that he was less and less buoyant. In their presence he tried to lay aside his troubles, and continued unfailingly kind.

He and the new Governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, were always at swords' points, and this wore on his spirits. Moreover, the health of Napoleon was impaired, and as he realized this he grew more and more gloomy.

Sir Hudson Lowe was very particular that the pa.s.ses issued for visitors should be used only as they had been made out.

One day Betsy went to Longwood with a pa.s.s that prescribed a visit to General Bertrand. But when Betsy, wandering about, caught sight of Napoleon in the billiard-room, she could not resist the temptation of playing a game with him. Her father vainly tried to remonstrate with her. Far from listening to him, she bounded off.

Instead of playing billiards, however, Napoleon asked her to read to him from a book that he had lately received from England. It was by Dr.

Warden, surgeon of the _Northumberland_, describing in English Napoleon's voyage to St. Helena. Napoleon had not made great headway in reading English, and Betsy went through several chapters with him, turning them into her French that he might better understand.

Napoleon listened attentively to her reading. "Dr. Warden's word is a very true one," he said.

Betsy finished her stay at Longwood this day by remaining awhile with Madame Bertrand.

The news of Betsy's visit to Napoleon without the requisite permission reached the Governor's ears; and Mr. Balcombe was severely reproved. In fact, he nearly lost his position. The Governor from the first insisted that Mr. Balcombe always acted in the interest of Napoleon, and hence, as he viewed it in his narrow-mindedness, against the interests of the English Government. Thus we can see that Napoleon's young neighbor was wrong in doing things that drew on her father the Governor's reproof.

"My dears," said Mr. Balcombe one morning, "I am going to Longwood to-morrow, and the Emperor has expressly asked me to bring you. He has something curious to show you."

"What can it be?" the girls asked each other. This special invitation, promising a special pleasure, made them eager to start when the next morning came.

When they reached Longwood with their father they found Napoleon examining a machine whose use they could guess.

"Come, come, young ladies," the great man cried, when he caught sight of them, "come see me make ice. You have not been here for a long time, Mees Betsy, what is the matter?"

"I have been ill,--a sunstroke."

"Oh, I am sorry! What foolish thing did you do?"

"Oh, Jane and I walked with Captain M. to call on Mrs. Wilks. We went over the mountain, two thousand feet, and also across Francis Plain, and down into the valley, up the mountain ridges."

Napoleon expressed his astonishment at the extent of their walk.

"Yes, we were nearly dead when we reached Plantation House, but the Lady Governess and her daughter there were so kind, and at noon we went to Fairyland."

When Betsy had told her story, Napoleon explained the air-pumps and the process of ice-making. He was evidently proud of his own proficiency.

"Now, Mr. Balcombe, get an elementary chemistry for Miss Betsy and make her study every day, and the good O'Meara shall be her examiner."

While he talked Napoleon was watching the machine.

"Do try my ice," he exclaimed at last, when he had a cupful.

"Here, Mees Betsee, take this!" and he put a large piece in her mouth.