Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/289

. A short time previous to our arrival, by the consent of the British Government, the Bellerophon, the same ship that had borne Napoleon here as an exile,  carried his remains back to his native land. Some cedars and weeping willows were growing around the  tomb, which was built of English cement. It had partly caved in, and pieces of it were lying about. I have a piece of it in my possession to-day. In the room in which the emperor died was a Yankee threshing -machine. The ceiling and walls were covered with cobwebs, and the floor strewn with chaff and straw.

Among the many yarns that I have heard spun in the ship’s forecastle is one about Napoleon’s attempted  escape from St. Helena. It is said that a Baltimore clipper was watering ship at the island. Large casks were used for the purpose of holding the water, and  these had been taken ashore by the crew, filled, and  returned to the landing, ready to be taken on board  ship. They were, in fact, being rolled over the drawbridge and past the guard house, when a guard noticed that one of the hogsheads appeared very light. He ordered the hoop at one end to be knocked off and the  head taken out, when, lo and behold, there was Napoleon!

On the 2d of June, late in the afternoon, we heard the shrill pipe of the boatswain and his mate calling all  hands, "Up anchor for the United States!" Home, sweet, sweet home! There is no sweeter word that greets the sailor’s ear, let his home be in England,  Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Russia, or in the land  of the Stars and Stripes. Yes, when homeward bound