CROSSING THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 
199 
who seemed to contemplate the antics that were being 
played at his feet with that sad smile of indulgence 
with which Wisdom sometimes -deigns to commiserate 
the gaiety of Folly. Suddenly he disappeared from 
beside me, : and the next that I saw or heard of him 
—he was hard at work pirouetting on the deck below 
with a red-tailed demon, and exhibiting in his steps 
a “verve” and a graceful audacity which at Paris 
would have certainly obtained for him the honours of 
expulsion at the hands of the municipal authorities. 
The entertainment of the day concluded with a dis¬ 
course delivered out of a windsail by the chaplain 
attached to the person of the Pkre Arctique, which 
was afterwards washed down by a cauldron full of grog, 
served out in bumpers to the several actors in this 
unwonted ceremonial. As the Prince had been good 
enough to invite us to dinner, instead of returning to 
the schooner I spent the intermediate hour in pacing 
the quarter-deck with Baron de la Boncffire,—the 
naval commander entrusted with the charge of the 
expedition. Like all the smartest officers in the French 
navy, he speaks English beautifully, and I shall ever 
remember with gratitude the cordiality with which he 
