[Illustration: A VIEW OF JAMES TOWN, ST. HELENA, AS IT APPEARED IN 1845, THE TIME OF THIS STORY. _From an Old Print._] The ill wrought on Joseph Lees' constitution was more deep seated than even so astute a man as Dr. Alexander Maxwell could foresee. After his departure from Ichaboe, which he devoutly hoped he would never set eyes on again, he had a serious relapse--so serious that, on the third day of the voyage to St. Helena, he gave up all his papers to Captain Graham, believing that he would not reach his destination alive. However, on New Year's morning, 1845, the first perspiration that he had had for nine months brought relief, and from that day progress towards recovery, though slow, was sure. As the _Elora_ came within sight of St. Helena, which from the sea looks like a bare and arid rock, the supercargo, who was sitting on deck in a despondent mood, found himself likening it to an immense tomb. Would it be his? Almost inclined at that moment to abandon all hope and answer in the affirmative, he fell to musing, his eyes fixed on the island. Black thoughts gave place to more cheerful ones, however, as the ship drew near to land, for its aspect gradually changed from the forbidding to the inviting. The verdure-covered mountains of the interior, their rounded summits reaching to the clouds, became more and more distinct; and though these disappeared when the _Elora_ got within shorter range of the perpendicular rocky cliffs, the watcher had soon the great satisfaction of once more setting eyes on human habitations--the houses and buildings of James Town, crowded within the narrow ravine formed by the almost vertical sides of Rupert's Hill and Ladder Hill. His sense of joy on returning to the haunts of men and civilization became still keener when he had actually landed and was being carried through the main street of the town--a street of solidly built houses, many with stone steps and iron railings leading up to the front doors, some with bow-windows and others with verandas. Recommended to put up at "the first house in the island," Lees was taken to the Rose and Crown, kept by Charles Fuller, an old-established resident. The letter from which I have already quoted was written from that hotel, three days after his arrival, and in it he says to his son: "I have two of the first doctors on the island, who are altering my treatment; and what effect it may have God alone knows. They are, too, for changing my residence from town to the very house and room where Napoleon lived until Longwood was made ready, and my nurse is the same person who nursed Mme. Bertrand.[6] Things are very dear here, and for all this I have to pay well; but whatever will contribute to my comfort and recovery I will have and pay for cheerfully. Thank God, I can afford it." [6] The Mme. Bertrand here referred to was the wife of Count Henri Gratien de Bertrand, the faithful general who followed Napoleon into exile.