As it was, they went back to England the middle of March, 1818, little more than three years before Napoleon's death. Their ship was the Winchelsea store-ship, on its way from China, and on the same vessel went General Gorgaud, the bachelor of Napoleon's suite, a pompous, though brave man, for whom Betsy had no especial liking. General Gorgaud knew that he would never return to St. Helena. Mr. Balcombe had obtained a six months' leave from his official duties, but he, too, may have felt as the vessel sailed away that he was unlikely ever again to look upon its frowning walls.
As to Betsy, Napoleon's young neighbor, the tears that fell from her eyes when she said her last good-bye to the Emperor were not the last that she shed for him. As the years went by she ever listened eagerly to all the news that came from St. Helena, until the final mournful tidings in the early summer of 1821, that Napoleon had died on the fifth of May.
"I am sure," said Betsy long afterwards, "after seeing Napoleon in every possible mood and in his most unguarded moments, I know that the idea of acting a part never entered his head. I had the most complete conviction of his want of guile, and the thorough goodness and amiability of his heart."
Betsy was a keen observer of human nature, and another of her judgments is worth remembering: "That this impression of his amiability and goodness was common to almost all who approached him is proved by the devotion of his followers at St. Helena. They had then nothing more to expect from him, and only entailed misery on themselves by adhering to his fortunes."
It is indeed a fact worth remembering, that Napoleon's suite, in spite of the fact that to a great extent Napoleon obliged them to practise the rigid etiquette of a court, were all devoted to him. It is true that they had to stand in his presence and in certain ways keep up a ceremony that seemed absurd in an establishment as simple as that of Longwood; but there were many hours of relaxation. In these hours of relaxation Napoleon played cards with his friends, or chess, or--after he went to Longwood--billiards. He was fond of reading aloud, and not infrequently favored his friends with a long reading. Sometimes he indulged in declamation, for he was rather proud of the fact that he had learned something of this art from the great Talma. In his later years at Longwood he devised ways of getting his needed exercise indoors and worked almost too vigorously at gardening.