k. Taking the arm of
his companion, however, he began to converse in a cheerful strain. When
Napoleon was about to retire to rest the servants found that one of the
windows was open close to the bed: they barricaded it as well as they
could, so as to exclude the air, to the effects of which the Emperor was
very susceptible. Las Cases ascended to an upper room. The valets de
chambres lay stretched in their cloaks across the threshold of the door.
Such was the first night Napoleon passed at the Briars.

An English officer was lodged with them in the house as their guard, and
two non-commissioned officers were stationed near the house to watch
their movements. Napoleon the next day proceeded with his dictation,
which occupied him for several hours, and then took a walk in the garden,
where he was met by the two Misses Balcombe, lively girls about fourteen
years of age, who presented him with flowers, and overwhelmed him with
whimsical questions. Napoleon was amused by their familiarity, to which
he had been little accustomed. "We have been to a masked ball," said he,
when the young ladies had taken their leave.

The next day a chicken was brought for breakfast, which the Emperor
undertook to carve himself, and was surprised at his succeeding so well,
it being a long time since he had done so much. The coffee he considered
so bad that on tasting it he thought himself poisoned, and sent it away.

The mornings were passed in business; in the evening Napoleon sometimes
strolled to the neighbouring villa, where the young ladies made him play
at whist. The Campaign of Italy was nearly finished, and Las Cases
proposed that the other followers of Napoleon who were lodged in the town
should come up every morning to assist in transcribing The Campaign of
Egypt, the History of the Consulate, etc. This suggestion pleased the
ex-Emperor, so that from that time one or two of his suite came regularly
every day to write to his dictation, and stayed to dinner. A tent, sent
by the Colonel of the 53d Regiment, was spread out so as to form a
prolongation of the pavillion. Their cook took up his abode at the
Briars. The table linen was taken from the trunks, the plate was set
forth, and the first dinner after these new arrangements was a sort of
fete.

One day at dinner Napoleon, casting his eye on one of the dishes of his
own campaign-service, on which the-arms of the King had been engraved,
"How they have spoiled that!" he exclaimed; and