Recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena/Chapter 11

DEADWOOD RACES.—MAMELUKE.—FETE AT BOSS COTTAGE.—NAPOLEON'S ATTEMPT AT SINGING.—VISIT TO MADAME BERTRAND'S.—THE EMPEROR'S ENGLISH.—PLANTATION HOUSE.—NAPOLEON'S METHOD OF FIGHTING OVER AGAIN HIS BATTLES.

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 Honourable Henry John Rous, the present member for Westminster, and which were at that time anticipated by the inhabitants of the island as a kind of jubilee. From having been, as was ​often the ease, 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. O'Meara, who told Napoleon; and my delight may be conceived when, a short 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 housings of crimson velvet embroidered with gold. Dr. O'Meara said that on telling the emperor of my distress, he desired the quietest horse in his stable to be immediately prepared for my use. This simply 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 D'Abrantes 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 fête 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 "un bravissimo uomo." When the festivities wore at their height, we descried the emperor riding along the hill's side 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 be 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 exercised over 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 animadversion. ​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, "Vive Henri Quatre."

One morning we went to call on Madame Bertrand, 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, repcating that he only meant to express that Madame Bertrand was his dear friend.

It was by Napoleon's especial 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 bad 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 Betsee, petite étourdie que vous êtes, vous ne devenez jamais 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 wore 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 maîtresse de ballet.

Napoleon used to evince great curiosity about the subject of our conversations, when we called on Lady Lowe at Planta​tion House, and asked whether they dis-cussed 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, whilst on a visit to Ma-dame Bertrand, we strolled up to see Mr. O'Meara, who happened to be engaged with the emperor; Cipriani, 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 red heads, 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 manœuvring to have won it.