After it, Napoleon characterised himself as ‘a regular porcupine’ on whom the governor ‘does not know where to put his hand’.22 He called for O’Meara to enter his bedroom. He wanted confirmation that he was not being spied upon and asked the doctor how he conceived his position, and whether he had ‘orders to report every trifling occurrence or illness, or what I say to you, to the governor?’

O’Meara replied that his role was ‘as your surgeon, and to attend upon you and your suite. I have received no other orders than to make an immediate report in case of your being taken seriously ill, in order to have promptly the advice and assistance of other physicians.’ He denied that he was in any capacity a spy for the governor, omitting to mention, of course, that he was now in that capacity for the Admiralty and was playing a double game.

Napoleon accepted his assurance: ‘I have never had the least occasion to find fault with you, and I have a friendship for you and an esteem for your character.’23

Napoleon took up riding again within the 12-mile limit with Las Cases and Gourgaud. They frequently visited a favourite glade in Geranium Valley where, at Napoleon’s request, willow cuttings had been planted, reminding him of Josephine’s garden and lake at Malmaison. Occasionally they would see two pretty farmers’ daughters working in the fields and Napoleon would wave or stop and say a few words, although the girls’ answers were always brief and nervous. He had invented names for them—the daughter of Farmer Knipe was ‘Rosebud’, and Miss Marianne Robinson, from a farm across the valley, was ‘The Nymph’.

Returning from one of these outings on 5 May, the riders encountered William Balcombe, walking with James Urmston, the English manager of the Company factory in Canton, whose ship was in port. Napoleon invited both men to join him for lunch in Longwood’s garden. In the course of the meal, the French voiced their bitter complaints about Governor Lowe. Gourgaud recorded: ‘We don’t have much to say in favour of the Governor! Balcombe, who was present at the interview, is confident that we shall soon be back again in France. That is the general opinion.’24 According to Bertrand’s journal of the same date, Balcombe said that the admiral was far superior to the governor in rank and ‘played a straight bat’. He added that the governor knew nothing about administration.25

Balcombe’s remarks would certainly have reached the governor’s ears. It is on record that James Urmston ‘saw a good deal’ of Lowe at Plantation House and maintained a correspondence with him, and that Lowe, ‘who had a genius for systematizing his private intelligences . . . gave Urmston a kind of roving commission as anti-Napoleonic informer for the Far East’.26 This explains Lowe’s early suspicion of Balcombe and his resentment of his intimacy with the people at Longwood. Although he was aware of Balcombe’s influential connections in London and the fact that Admiral Cockburn seemed particularly friendly with him, he thought he should be closely watched. The agent he could rely upon was Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Thomas Reade, his deputy adjutant-general.

Reade had been his chief of staff at Genoa and afterwards had been ‘employed in the intelligence department’. According to the historian Gilbert Martineau, the short, plump and baby-faced 31-year-old Reade was ‘the most savage and the least scrupulous enemy the French possessed’.27 About this time, Reade became a regular visitor at The Briars. People believed that he was paying court to young Betsy, but almost certainly those attentions provided a convenient cover.

If Napoleon was not reconciled to his situation, at least he was becoming realistic. He also seemed calmer, but this may have been because in mid-May he was working on an escape plan proposed by Las Cases. The plan is referred to in Montholon’s papers, although without details.28 Lowe’s rigorous security procedures had fuelled Napoleon’s determination to outwit him. If he could manage to escape he would destroy the governor’s career.

Towards the end of May, the Balcombes came to lunch at Longwood, which would not have endeared them to the governor. Gourgaud had his usual objections to the girls, calling them ‘silly geese’: ‘They refer to His Majesty as the “General”, for which we twit them. They visit Mme Montholon and make grimaces behind her back.’29 (The grimaces no doubt concerned Madame’s advanced pregnancy—the baby was due the following month.)

Napoleon had a temporary distraction from his annoyance with the governor, a two-wheeled calash or jaunting car, for which he had paid £245.30 Far speedier than Wilks’s old four-wheeled barouche, it had just arrived from the Cape and he proposed taking Betsy and Jane for a ride. Archambault the groom lashed six skittish horses three abreast and they set off at a hard gallop. Napoleon took mischievous pleasure in calling for an increase in pace as they thundered around the yawning chasm known as the Devil’s Punchbowl. He seemed gratified by the terror on Betsy’s face. ‘The party occupying the side nearest the declivity seemed almost hanging over the precipice,’ she wrote, ‘while the others were, apparently, crushed against the gigantic walls formed by the perpendicular rock . . .