Page:Helen Leah Reed - Napoleons young neighbour.djvu/173

Rh one of the besiegers managed to climb the cliff on the other side. He reached a point opposite the cave and higher up, so that he could roll down stones toward the slaves. When one of these wretched creatures was standing on the edge of the cliff he was killed by one of the rocks rolled from above, and the other who was with him was severely injured; and now," concluded Betsy solemnly, "if you go there at the right time, the islanders say that you will see the murdered slave rushing around at night just as he used to when alive."

Napoleon, after hearing Betsy's legend, said: "When I ride that way again I shall certainly look at the sugar-loaf mountain with much greater interest than ever before."

Undoubtedly these various legends, which Betsy had heard from her earliest childhood, tended to make her superstitious. Napoleon soon found that she was easily frightened, and took advantage of this fact sometimes to tease her unmercifully. When he arrived at The Briars, one of Betsy's little brothers had as tutor an elderly man named Huff. The coming of Napoleon had a strange effect on the tutor's