In his final exile, Napoleon makes an unlikely friend.

>This period was his happiest on St. Helena, not least because he struck up an unlikely, charming and innocent friendship with the second of the Balcombes’ four surviving children, Betsy, a spirited fourteen-year-old-girl who spoke intelligible if ungrammatical French and to whom [Napoleon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Jacques-Louis_David_-_The_Emperor_Napoleon_in_His_Study_at_the_Tuileries_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) behaved with avuncular indulgence. She had originally been brought up to view Napoleon, in her words, as ‘a huge ogre or giant, with one large flaming eye in the centre of his forehead, and long teeth protruding from his mouth, with which he tore to pieces and devoured little girls’, but she very soon came to adore him. […] >The friendship began when napoleon tested Betsy on the capitals of Europe. When he asked her the capital of Russia she replied, ‘Petersburg now; Moscow formerly’, upon which ‘He turned abruptly round, and, fixing his piercing eyes full in my face, he demanded sternly, “Who burnt it?” ‘ >She was dumbstruck, until he laughed and said: ‘*Oui, oui*. You know very well that it was I who burnt it!’ Upon which the teenager corrected him: ‘I believe, sir, the Russians burnt it to get rid of the French.’ Whereupon Napoleon laughed and friendship with ‘Mademoiselle Betsee’, ‘lettle monkee’, ‘*bambina*’ and ‘little scatterbrain’ was born. They sang songs together, and would march around the room tunelessly humming the air ‘Vive Henri Quatre’. >’I never met anyone who bore childish liberties so well as Napoleon,’ recalled Betsy. ‘He seemed to enter into every sort of mirth or fun with the glee of a child, and though I have often tried his patience severely, I never knew him lose his temper or fall back upon his rank or age.’ >[…] >Freed of responsibility, he allowed himself a good deal of levity, almost a second childhood. When Betsy’s brother Alexander called him by his British nickname ‘Boney’ he didn’t understand the allusion, especially after Las Cases interpreted it literally. He pointed out what was by then all too obvious: ‘I am not at all boney.’ ________________________ **Source:** Roberts, Andrew. "St Helena." *Napoleon: A Life*. New York: Penguin, 2014. 782-83. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Balcombe, *To Befriend* pp. 34, 43-4, 55, 135 ________________________ **Further Reading:** [Lucia Elizabeth ″Betsy″ Balcombe Abell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Balcombe) [Napoleone di Buonaparte / Napoléon Bonaparte / Napoleon I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon) ___________________________ **If you enjoy this type of content, please consider donating to my [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/HistoryLockeBox)!**