Page:Helen Leah Reed - Napoleons young neighbour.djvu/221

Rh to put a Bourbon prince to death so that the Bourbons would not again try to take my life. The prisoner was tried for having taken arms against the Republic, and was executed according to law. But he was not shot in a ditch nor at night. All was open and known to the public."

This talk about the Duc d'Enghien led Napoleon to tell Betsy of many thrilling experiences of his own in escaping death at the hands of would-be assassins.

At another time Betsy ran up to Napoleon, crying, "Why is your face so swollen and inflamed?"

"Oh," replied Napoleon, assuming a doleful look, "Dr. O'Meara has just drawn a tooth and I have had much pain."

"What!" exclaimed Betsy in the role of mentor. "You to complain of pain—the pain of so trifling an operation, though you have gone through battles innumerable with storms of bullets whizzing, some of which must have touched you. I am ashamed. But give me the tooth, and I will get Mr. Solomon to set it as an ear-ring."

Napoleon, listening to Betsy, was evidently