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150
Recollections of
[Ch. XIII.

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. O'Meara's skill to extract the thorns which the prickly pears 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 Meynell who had a very severe and dangerous illness during the time he was stationed at St. Helena. I recollect

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