THE LAYING OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 225 



signal for a hurried and over-precipitous descent, 

 from the tumbles met with in which some of us did 

 not recover for many days. 



Throughout Thursday and Friday the ship was 

 visited by numbers of the neighbouring gentry, and 

 the market was kept up as usual, though the arrival 

 of the two men-of-war relieved us from a little of the 

 pressure. On Friday evening, Captain Xapier of the 

 Terrible, and Captain Hamilton of the Sphinx, with 

 all the officers of both vessels, joined us at dinner. 

 Amongst the latter were two intelligent young Danes, 

 whose talk was naturally about our beloved Princess, 

 and the shameful spoliation of their country ; and 

 certainly it would be difficult to find two themes bet- 

 ter calculated to awaken a Briton's loyal enthusiasm 

 or to arouse his fierce indignation. 



In spite of the lovely scenery around, we were 

 getting tired of our pleasant inactivity, and were 

 anxious to leave our present moorings. Sorely 

 grieved, too, was Captain Anderson at the delay 

 caused by the late arrival of the Caroline, for well 

 he knew that the time was approaching when the 

 weather could not be depended on for two days 

 together. It was therefore with intense satisfaction 

 that we hailed the arrival of a coast-guardsman from 

 Yalentia, who, coming overland, reached our ship on 

 Saturday at 11 P.M., bringing the welcome intelli- 

 gence that the Caroline had commenced laying the 

 shore-end of the Cable (about twenty-seven miles in 



