ON THE WAY TO ST. HELENA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2416, 28 June 1900, Page 67

ON THE WAY TO ST. HELENA.

(M. Caebese, in Le Matin.)

I looked at the company. At the table opposite me were the officers, clad in red tunics, and some gentlemen in smoking jackets. The menu was passed round. Terrible moment ! I know nothing o£ English dishes.

"Will you allow me to help you, sir? I have lived much in France, and I might bs able to tell you to what dishes of your country ours correspond." A. harp playing on a stormy night would not cause me greater joy. It is my neighbour on the left who addresses me thus, with just that slight lisping so becoming to foreigners.

I pour out my thanks. "Oh, the least thing we can do is to help you, since you are the only Frenchman here."

1 do not repent it,

"I would wager,' ' says my neighbour, "that you believe in English pride, in their contempt of the French, and in British sans-gene."

I try in my turn to find some amiable phrases ; then, "Are you going to the Cape, madam?" "No, sir ; to St. Helena."

Profound astonishment on my part. ■ "Ah ! all England, it seems, is going to St. Helena," I say to myself. "And you, sir?" "I, too, am going to St. Helena, madam." "Ah, what a surprise !" "J »m going to see the grave of Napoleon." "You are right to do so, he was such a great figure. lam going to rejoin my husband who has command of the island."

"0 the hazard cf the voyage ! I am sitting next tho Countess Bathurst, whose hu«band is in command at St. Helena, and who is descended from the very minister that sent Napoleon into exile. The father of Lady Bathurst is the proprietor of- the Morninp, Post.-"

"flow odd it is!" she says with -a smile: ''it was the great-grandfa.th.er of my husban-1 who exiled your Emperor, and it is my 'n.--baiid who is charged with guarding Cronje. But rest assured that he will be better treat ?cl than Napoleon." "You think, then, that Napoleon was badly treated?" "Oh. don't speak of it; it is one of tl-f most deplorable pagos of our hislojy. It \>as tho fault of that stupid Hudson L»owe whom they ought never to have selected, and who Avas so little of a gentleman. He wi-oto i>iu_; letters to London; did the real state of the Emperor and deceived all the world. Tn = unfortunate man has contributed lfsm-e thasi anything lo give -as the reputation oi buns? cruel." The countess stopped. TJ)en, excited l ? * "It was like that idea of callinc? ],i m 'Generis! Bonaparte.' It was stupid, and po mea-i siml useless! Just as if he had not the right, more than any one, to be treated as an Emperor to the end. he who was so nobly vm quished. That Hudson Lowe is a disgi'vw lo us. Unfortunately, Cronic is not' the oqual of the other, and nis exile will in lost talked about.' 1

The conversation continues about *" ipolo.ui. and in the course of it the countess-- reveals to me that the manuscript of the "lUerr-nnal of St. Helena" belongs to her hujjvxl "But how," said she, "are you you" 1 U i.ut up at St. Helena?" "At the hotel." "But there isn't one !" She laughs very gaily. "Wei 1 , you Must go and put up at Longwood. Besides, there you will be on French soil." "What?" "Didn't you know it?- I didn't bpfnre i!ie journey. Longwood wa? given to T'Vai.re under Napoleon ill. 1 wanted to huy it when my husband wa« ,=cnL thero, alia it'w.\s thus that I learnt tha fac'l." "Then I shall still be in France." "To be sure you will."'

MOUNTAIN KING ASTHMA POWDER, wonderful cure for Asthma, Bronchitis, Hay Fever, Laryngitis, and Irritation of the Air Paß.'rfges. Kemplhorne, Proper, agents.