Page:Helen Leah Reed - Napoleons young neighbour.djvu/230



ANY a time when in the company of Napoleon and the members of his suite, Betsy must have realized that this pleasant intercourse could not last always.

Few people remained indefinitely long at St. Helena,—few people, indeed, besides the natives and the one life prisoner, the Emperor Napoleon. Betsy, however, had no desire to leave her beloved island. She loved its climate and its scenery, and she was happy with the many people who were her friends. It was a gay little place, with numerous officers quartered there with their families,—a much gayer place than it would have been had not the British Government thought it necessary to make it a great military stronghold for the safeguarding of the Emperor, a much gayer place than it had been before Napoleon's arrival.