ats, and Post Captains fell for ten
minutes without intermission from the clouds into which they had been
driven by the awful force of the explosion. I turned to my Lieutenant, who
was standing beside me, to give a necessary order. As I was about to
address him, the machine-guns in the enemy's tops belched forth a myriad
projectiles, and the unfortunate Lieutenant was swept into eternity. All
that was left of him was his right hand, which, curiously enough, remained
for a minute suspended in the air in its proper relative position to what
had been the Lieutenant's body. I mastered my emotion with an effort, as I
reverently grasped and shook the melancholy relic. Then, shedding a silent
tear, I dropped it over the side, and with an aching heart, watched it
disappear beneath the wave on which many of its former owner's happiest
hours had been spent.

CHAPTER V.

This catastrophe ended the battle. The allied fleets had been swept off the
face of the ocean. I packed what remained of H.M.S. _Bandersnatch_ in my
tobacco-pouch, attached myself to a hen-coop, and thus floated triumphantly
into Portsmouth Harbour.

* * * * *

CHARLEMAGNE AND I.

_Aix-la-Chapelle, Monday._--I have always had a strange longing to know
CHARLEMAGNE. To shake him by the hand, to have opportunity of inquiring
after his health and that of his family, to hear his whispered reply--that
indeed were bliss. But CHARLEMAGNE is dead, and desire must be curbed. The
only thing open to an admirer is to visit the place of his last repose, and
brood in spots his shade may yet haunt. CHARLEMAGNE was buried at
Aix-la-Chapelle (German Aachen), but since my arrival in the town, I find
great difficulty in discovering his tomb. The great soldier Emperor
resembled an unfortunate and unskilful pickpocket in one respect. He was
always being taken up. He died in the year 814, and was left undisturbed
till the year 1000, when the Emperor OTTO THE THIRD opened his tomb, and,
finding his great predecessor sitting on a marble chair, helped him down.
The marble chair is on view in the Cathedral to this day (verger, I mark)
to witness to the truth of this narrative. One hundred and sixty-five years
later, FREDERICK BARBAROSSA opened the second tomb where OTHO had placed
C., and transferred to a marble sarcophagus what, at this date, was left of
him. In the following century C. was canonised. Whereupon nothing would
satisfy FREDERICK THE SECOND