Page:California Digital Library (IA recollectionsofe00abeliala).pdf/96

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
70
Recollections of
[Ch. VII.

Turque" meant changing his religion. He laughed and said, "What is that to you? Fighting is a soldier's religion; I never changed that. The other is the affair of women and priests; quant à moi, I always adopt the religion of the country I am in." At a later period some Italian ecclesiastics arrived at St. Helena and were attached to Napoleon's suite.

Amongst the emperor's domestics at the Briars was a very droll character, his lamp-lighter, a sort of Leporello,—a little fellow, most ingenious in making toys and other amusing mechanical contrivances. Napo- would often send for the scaramouch to amuse my brothers, who were infinitely delighted with his tricks and buffooneries. Sometimes he constructed balloons, which were inflated and sent up amidst the acclamations of the whole party. One day he contrived to harness four mice to a small carriage, but the poor little animals were so terrified that he could not get them to

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.