258 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLAY 



to the captive Napoleon at St Helena, so touching] y 

 described in the Memorial, when an ' irruption de 

 rats, enormes, hardis, et tres mediants ' was suffered 

 to deprive the Emperor and his devoted followers 

 in exile of their dejeuner a la fourchette. 



' As for rat-catchers/ says St John, ' find me an 

 honest one, and I will forfeit my reputation.' So 

 far as the writer's experience goes, want of skill, 

 rather than of honesty, is the chief failing of the 

 profession ; though on the sole occasion in which 

 he knew one of the craft to be employed to poison 

 rats in a dwelling-house, a demand for the surrender 

 of the key of the ' silver hutch ' East Anglian for 

 the plate-chest in addition to those of all other 

 rooms and receptacles possessing a lock in which 

 poison might be laid, excited some not unnatural 

 misgivings. He poisoned all the rats, which died 

 under the floors of every room on the ground-floor, 

 and gave employment for weeks to his friend the 

 village joiner in ripping up and replacing planks ; 

 and an intermittent crop of dead mice, which by 

 preference chose the hearthstones as a suitable cover- 

 ing for their bodies, gave to the same rooms the 

 aspect of a small pavior's yard at intervals for some 

 months after. On the other hand, the rats, when 

 allowed to resume their old quarters, made an im- 

 moderate use of victory. Food, linen, paper and 



