293 FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
voice rose, and he told us of battles by land and sea, 
of fighting, of cutting of throats, and of bodies thrown 
over ships 1 sides. It was not easy to understand more 
than the drift of what he said, for his words were mumbled 
and his patois was unfamiliar. But we let him go on, 
listening intently till his voice died away and he sat 
silent and grim. We waited for him to begin again, 
but he had gone too far back in memories of the past 
to speak to us. Then C. leant towards him and asked 
him in his gentle, rather weak voice, 'Aimez-vous la 
Republique?' and you should have seen how he wakened 
up ! It was not a sudden awakening, but a sort of thaw ; 
a light kindled in his grey eyes ; the wrinkles twitched ; 
three times he spat on the floor ; and then his square 
mouth opened, a hole in a death's-head, and a great 
hoarse voice came out, C A BAS LA republique — VIVE LE 
roi !— VIVE NAPOLEON ! ' 
The other old men stirred a little when they heard the 
call, and a slight murmur went round and fell, and the 
room was quiet again. Then we three — the two nouveaux 
and the old soldier — raised our petits verres to the fame 
of the hero. 
The old fellow s hand trembled as he raised his, and he 
seemed to be looking so intently into the past that I do 
not think he noticed that his glass was already empty. 
. . . Now— I feel better — after this little change from 
the ice to Paris, and come back to my log-writing with 
renewed patience. 
We had heard of Nansen and of his proposed venture 
