Napoleon's Young Neighbor Part 3

"The horse?"

"No, Napoleon; just look at those jewels and ribbons on his coat--and I never saw so beautiful a saddlecloth. It is embroidered with gold."

Before more could be said, Mr. and Mrs. Balcombe were moving forward to meet Sir George c.o.c.kburn and his distinguished companion. The sisters closely followed their parents, and after the older people had been presented to Napoleon the turn of the girls came. Betsy, looking up, was impressed by the charm of Napoleon's smile. She saw that his hair was brown and silky fine; his eyes were a brilliant hazel. She also noticed one slight defect,--that his even teeth were dark, the result, she afterwards learned, of his habit of using much licorice.

The children at first were surprised to find Napoleon neither as tall nor as impressive as he had appeared on horseback. When they looked in his face they decided that he was very attractive, and when he spoke his smile and kindly manner at once won their hearts. From that moment Betsy forgot that she had ever considered him an ogre. To herself she called him the handsomest man she had ever seen.

"This is a most beautiful situation," he said to Betsy's mother. "One could be almost happy here!" he added with a sigh.

"Then perhaps you will honor us with a visit until Longwood is ready,"

interposed Mr. Balcombe. "I understand that you prefer this to the town, and I have already put some rooms at Sir George c.o.c.kburn's disposal."

"I do prefer it."

"Then the rooms are at your service."

Strange language this to a prisoner,--the children may have thought as they listened,--to give him a choice of abode. Later they learned why their father had put the matter in this way. They heard how wretched it made the Emperor to think of returning to the small house where he had lodged in the town and where people stared into the windows, as if he were some kind of wild animal. When he found that Longwood would not be ready for him for several weeks, he had at once declared his unwillingness to return to Jamestown. The glimpse of The Briars that he had had from a distance pleased him greatly, and he had asked if it might not be possible to lodge him there. Mr. Balcombe, as an official of the Government, having placed some rooms at the disposal of the Admiral, Sir George c.o.c.kburn, was now anxious to put Napoleon at his ease about occupying them.

The Balcombe children were greatly stirred up when they found that Napoleon was to be their neighbor, for the rooms to be a.s.signed him were near, but not in, the main house. Their fear of the Emperor had almost wholly disappeared.

Continuing to praise the view, Napoleon asked that some chairs be brought out on the lawn.

"Come, Mademoiselle," he said to Betsy in French, "sit by me and talk.

You speak French?"

"Yes, sir," replied Betsy with apparent calmness, though her heart was beating violently.

"Who taught you?"

"I learned in England, when I was at school."

"That is well, and what else did you study? Geography, I hope."

"Yes, sir."

"Then you can tell me what is the capital of France?"

"Paris, monsieur."

"Of Italy?"

"Rome."

"Of Russia?"

"St. Petersburg."

He looked up quickly. "St. Petersburg now; it was Moscow."

Then he asked, sternly and abruptly, "_Qui l'a brule?_" ["Who burned it?"]

Betsy trembled. There was something terrifying now in his expression, as well as in the tones of his voice. She could not find words to reply as she recalled what she had heard about the burning of the great Russian city and the question as to whether the French or the Russians had set it on fire.

"_Qui l'a brule?_" repeated Napoleon.

But there was a twinkle in his eye and a smile in his voice that encouraged Betsy to venture a stammering "I don't know, sir."

"_Oui, oui_," he responded, laughing heartily. "_Vous savez tres bien.

C'est moi qui l'a brule._" ["Yes, yes, you understand well. It is I who burned it."]

Then Betsy ventured further:

"I believe, sir, the Russians burned it to get rid of the French."

Again Napoleon laughed and, instead of being angry, seemed pleased that the little girl knew something about the Russian campaign.

Now while Napoleon was sitting in the garden or walking about the beautiful grounds, all was confusion and excitement within The Briars.

Betsy's mother, like any other good English housewife, was naturally somewhat taken aback at having suddenly to make plans to entertain Napoleon and part of his suite. Even though the English Government might pay for his board, she must still regard him as her guest, and in the small time at her disposal do all that she could to make him comfortable.

Rooms, therefore, must be rearranged and what furniture could be spared from the rest of the house must be put into Napoleon's apartments. So, in the short s.p.a.ce of a few hours, the dreaded Emperor of the French, the ogre feared by the children, had become the neighbor, almost the inmate of a happy English household--English, in spite of its distance, many thousands of miles away, from the islands of Great Britain.

It was evening when Napoleon came back to the house with the family.

Here again his conversation was chiefly with Betsy, as her fluent French pleased him. Her parents could use the language only with difficulty.

"Do you like music?"

"Yes, sir."

"But I suppose that you are too young to play."

This rather piqued Betsy.

"I can both sing and play."

"Then sing to me."

Thereupon Betsy, seating herself at the little harpsichord, sang in a sweet, full voice "Ye Banks and Braes."

"That is the prettiest English air I have ever heard."

"It is a Scotch air," said Betsy timidly.

"I thought it too pretty to be English. Their music is vile,--the worst in the world. Do you know any French songs? Ah, I wish you could sing _Vive Henri Quatre_."

"No, sir; I know no French songs."

Upon this the Emperor began to hum the air, and in a fit of abstraction, rising from his chair, marched around the room, keeping time to the tune he was singing.