r of the island.

It happened once, nearly ninety years after the first discovery, that an
English crew landed for refreshment, and wandering about the island
approached the little church. They believed themselves the only human
beings on the island, and were therefore greatly surprised to hear a
voice singing within the church.

"It is a Portuguese," they said one to another, "let us enter and make
him prisoner."

Without another word the doors were thrown open, and there kneeling
alone in the church, they discovered a strange figure, wild and
terrified, dressed in a rough suit of goat-skin.

"Who are you?" cried the foremost of the sailors, forgetting that the
supposed Portuguese was not likely to answer an English question; but
the man started to his feet at the words, gazed round him, looking one
by one into the eager and wondering faces before him, and then, as if he
could no longer contain his joy, he rushed towards them, and threw
himself into the arms of the foremost.

He, in his turn, had feared that the new-comers were Portuguese, and the
poor English sailor, for such he was, had endured an agony of terror
till the sound of English speech assured him that he was among friends
and fellow-countrymen.

His story was soon told. He had been left at St. Helena by a passing
ship, because he was so reduced by the voyage that the captain feared
that he could never reach his home. Here he had lived for fourteen long
months, and had never during that time heard a human voice, or seen the
face of a friend. He had lived chiefly on the flesh of goats, which had
now multiplied on the island, and had in his wild, free life quite
recovered his health. But the joy of meeting with friends after so long
a solitude was too great; he was quite unable to sleep, and only lived
till the ship in which he had taken passage reached the West Indies.

St. Helena passed at length into the hands of the English, was colonized
and brought into cultivation, and it was here that Napoleon ended the
career which had laid waste and despoiled Europe. Here in this little
island was bounded his wide ambition; the sea set limits to his steps on
every side and stretched its strong impassible barrier all around him.
Here, though not alone, he endured a solitude which was doubtless
heavier to bear and more hopeless than that felt by any of the wanderers
who in early days were left upon that shore. For there is no solitude
like that of a heart whic