They found Napoleon firing at a mark with pistols and Betsy noted ‘a gleam of the former playfulness’ he had shown at The Briars. ‘He put one into my hand, loaded, I believe, with powder, and, in great trepidation, I fired it off; he often called me afterwards “La petite tirailleuse” [tirailleur or skirmisher] and said he would form a corps of sharp-shooters, of which I should be the captain.’ He invited them to inspect his new billiard table. ‘I remember thinking it too childish for men, and very like marbles on a larger scale. The emperor condescended to teach me how to play, but I made very little progress.’3

On 24 July, O’Meara sent a secret report to Sir Thomas Reade, noting that Bonaparte had spent over two hours in the Montholon apartment the previous evening. ‘This will make Madame Bertrand as jealous as the deuce, though I believe the real reason is that he has no other room to sit in until the chimney is finished or the library put to rights. Madame Montholon however exults much at the favour shown to her, and actually putteth on two extra gowns daily, in consequence thereof.’ This was not the first of O’Meara’s sly insinuations about Albine de Montholon, and it would not be the last.4

The following day, Admiral Malcolm came to Longwood and stayed for four hours, bringing French newspapers which had arrived on the HMS Griffon.5 An insurrection at Grenoble cheered Napoleon immensely. The Bourbons, he said, were seated on a volcano. The admiral and Bonaparte had taken the measure of each other and respected what they saw. Throughout their protracted discussion, they walked around the drawing room with their hats under their arms, for Sir Pulteney knew not to be seated while his host remained standing. He understood Bonaparte’s need to salvage what vestiges he could of courtly dignity; he ‘saw that he was determined to keep up as long as he could, within his own house, the state of an emperor’.6

On 6 August, William Balcombe made a visit not entered in the orderly’s logbook and went for a ride in the carriage with Napoleon. He continued to raise hopes in a manner that, if the governor had known of his comments, would have caused him to be ejected from the island. Bertrand gave an account in his private journal, explicitly naming the purveyor: ‘Mr Balcombe has gone to Longwood and promenaded for two hours in the carriage with the Emperor. He maintains that of all the officers who are here, there is not one who would not give something for Napoleon to return to his throne. All the officers of the 66th who crossed France declare that everyone, in the inns and cafes, mourns the Emperor, because, they say, he has been chosen, or because, say others, he gave to France much glory. In England the same, the party for Napoleon is growing; opinion is changing on his account.’7

On the same day, a lieutenant, two midshipmen and a party of seamen from the Newcastle arrived at Longwood to repair the garden marquee torn in recent rains. Napoleon strolled over and chatted with one of the midshipmen.8 Betsy noted how impressed he was with the elegant youth: ‘Napoleon was fond of sailors, and liked entering into conversation with the young midshipmen who conducted the fatigue parties at Longwood. On one occasion a remarkably handsome and high-born young reefer attracted his notice, from the activity he displayed in setting his men to work in erecting a commodious marquee out of studding-sail. He inquired his name, and when he heard it was the Honourable G C, he remarked that he was one of the very few instances in which he had observed high birth combined with so much amiability and intelligence.’9

Dame Mabel Brookes, in her St Helena Story, tells us that this midshipman was the Honourable George Carstairs, Betsy’s first love interest.10 It is clear that Betsy was intrigued by the youth, for the next time she saw Napoleon she said that she ‘had the pleasure of being acquainted with the young middy he so much admired, and that he was the most popular of any of his young companions in the wardroom’. Her first sight of ‘G C’ had been after Admiral Cockburn’s ball. He was drunkenly singing with other ‘middies’ (midshipmen) on top of a cart blocking the exit from the castle courtyard.11

On 10 August, Napoleon was breakfasting in the new marquee when the governor arrived to personally invite him to the Prince Regent’s birthday celebrations. He hid from sight and Lowe went away disappointed.

Later that day, Sir Pulteney Malcolm and his wife had no trouble finding Napoleon, who invited them for what he called ‘a drive round the Park’ in his carriage. As they clattered between the gumwood trees and around the ‘steep, black, dreary-looking hollow’ of the Devil’s Punchbowl, Lady Malcolm considered that ‘going so fast, it did not seem quite safe; but the two Paris postilions were excellent’.12

Napoleon was interested to learn that the admiral had rowed around the island the previous day. It was useful information that a rowing boat could approach the cliffs.

The Prince Regent’s birthday on 12 August was celebrated with a grand field day at Deadwood Camp. Salutes were fired from the batteries. Pacing about the Longwood garden, Napoleon watched the distant parade on the plain and the governor’s review of the redcoats.

In the evening, a formal dinner for fifty was held at Plantation House, the women in their silks, satins and jewellery and the men’s uniforms blazing with decorations, reflected from the great crystal chandelier above the table. Dinner was followed by a ball at Deadwood in a marquee lit by lanterns. The women came up from town crammed into carts pulled by horses or oxen, carrying their evening dresses in boxes. ‘We got down from the carriage,’ recalled one lady, ‘into mud up to our knees in the damp darkness.’13 Lady Lowe chose to stay in town; she was seven months pregnant and had told Major Gorrequer that she would never have married again ‘if she had thought she would have got pickaninnies from a second husband’.14 Furthermore, she complained, the local people showed no special attention to a governor’s wife.

At the Deadwood ball, in the absence of his wife, Sir Hudson partnered Lady Malcolm for the first set. Betsy was invited up for the quadrille by the Honourable George Carstairs, ‘the greatest beau that ever came to St Helena’. It would seem that if she had fancied him at first, her interest had since waned.