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sire that the government would permit him to remain there, by purchasing the estate; and on their refusing to do so, he sent General Montholon to negociate with my father, that he himself might become the purchaser of the Briars: but circumstances (probably political) prevented the negociation from being carried out. Napoleon used to watch with great interest the fatigue parties of the 53rd regiment, as they wound round the mountains, carrying on their shoulders the materials wherewith Longwood was to be rendered fit to receive him; and as the time of its completion drew nigh, he manifested his discontent by grumbling at the fifes and drums, to the sound of which the soldiers of the 53rd used to toil up those steep declivities, as their monotonous notes warned him of the speedy termination of his sojourn at our cottage.

Shortly after the emperor left the Briars, we proposed riding to Longwood, to see him, feeling exceedingly anxious to know how