This made her scream, for it had just been pierced for earrings, so he pulled her nose instead ‘but quite in fun’. ‘I never met with anyone who bore childish liberties so well as Napoleon,’ she recalled later. ‘He seemed to enter into every sort of mirth or fun with the glee of a child, and though I have often tried his patience severely, I never knew him to lose his temper or fall back upon his rank or age, to shield himself from the consequences of his own familiarity, or of his indulgence to me.’12

The story of Betsy and the sword swept across Europe. Bonaparte had been threatened by a young girl who seemed ‘cracked in the head’.13 Even the great Austrian statesman Prince Metternich was given a personal account of the incident.14

Mesdames Fanny Bertrand and Albine de Montholon had little to do each day but read, sew, watch their children play in the castle gardens, and find new ways of quarrelling with each other. During breaks in hostilities they visited Saul Solomon’s store in the vague hope of finding something interesting to purchase. They were a popular sight from the doors of the taverns, wine houses and hostels, teetering on dainty Parisian heels up Jamestown’s cobbled main street, holding lace-trimmed parasols aloft to protect their complexions. Their ensembles in satin and mousseline de soie (silk muslin) were the latest in Empire fashion, and Albine’s hourglass shape belied her new pregnancy. Encased in whalebone corsets, the ladies found the summer heat unendurable.

Fanny, convent-educated and devout, grieved that there was no priest on the island. She still hoped to persuade her husband, despite his loyalty to the emperor, to depart after twelve months for England, where they could live in style with her relatives, influential figures in the English-Catholic aristocracy. In the meantime she had resolved that she and Albine must endure the place and, if possible, each other. However, she preferred the company of Mrs Jane Balcombe and the newly arrived Catherine Younghusband.

Catherine described Fanny Bertrand to her aunt in Ireland: ‘She is an elegant woman, about 5 ft 7 inches in height, but pale & delicate, & miserable at being in this place. The Grand Maréchal, General Bertrand, is a fine soldier-like & polite man . . . Their three children, Napoleon, Hortense and Henri, exceed in beauty any children I have ever seen. Madame Bertrand speaks English perfectly well. She is of Irish extraction & of the Dillon family. She seemed very much pleased to see us & took great notice of Emily. I think we are likely to have much pleasure in her society.’15

Tempers were becoming frayed among the members of the French suite. ‘Cipriani annoys me continually with his questions and his visits to my room,’ wrote Gourgaud at the Porteous house. ‘There is a great quarrel between Madame Montholon and Madame Bertrand.’16 A few days later, Gourgaud flew into a rage against Montholon and had to be restrained. Napoleon rebuked General Bertrand, who had failed to write a letter of formal complaint listing their various grievances. Bertrand replied that some of the grumbles about chamber servants and mattresses were unworthy of His Majesty.

A welcome distraction came with the news that Admiral Sir George Cockburn was to host a ball at the castle in late November. The local society people would attend, and also the military and ships’ officers, one of whom wrote that if Sir George ‘can find the ladies, of course we shall go there’.17 The real excitement was that the French were to be invited, including their diabolical leader. Whom among the local ladies might he ask for a quadrille? Some felt faint at the thought. But those who had spoken to him on his rides had found him pleasant. And quite handsome really. At Solomons’ store and along the promenade they talked of little else.

Gourgaud heard the rumours and was elated. He was already paying for sex with black and mulatto girls, but he craved the company of a genteel young woman. He fantasised about one in particular: Laura Wilks, the governor’s daughter, whom he had seen just once.