presence obtruded the fact, otherwise easily and discreetly
ignored, that when out of French waters we were hospitably
entertaining persons politically distasteful to the French government,
the courtesies of which we were now accepting; and there was a
momentary impulse to keep her out of sight. A better judgment
prevailed, however, and a very courteous exchange of French politeness
ensued between the officials and the lady, to whom doubtless political
significance attached. A more notable circumstance, in the light of
the then future, was that during our few days in Cherbourg arrived the
news of the capture of the city of Mexico by the French troops; and
before our departure took place the official celebration, with flags
and salutes, of that crowning event in an enterprise which in the end
proved disastrous to its originator, and fatal to his protege,
Maximilian.

The _Macedonian_, for a sailing-vessel, had a quite rapid run across
from Newport to Plymouth, eighteen days from anchor to anchor, though
I believe one of our frigates, after the war, made it in twelve. This
was the only occasion, during my fairly numerous crossings, that. I
have ever seen icebergs under a brilliant sky. Usually the scoundrels
come skulking along masked by a fog, as though ashamed of themselves,
as they ought to be. They are among the most obnoxious of people who
do not know their place. This time we passed several, quite large,
having a light breeze and perfectly clear horizon. After that it again
set in thick, with the usual anxiety which ice, unseen but surely
near, cannot but cause. Finally we took a very heavy gale of wind,
which settled to southwest, hauling gradually to northwest and sending
us rejoicing on our way a thousand miles in four days, much of this
time under close-reefed topsails.

I am not heedless of the great danger of merely prosing along in the
telling of the days of youth, so I will shut off my experience of the
_Macedonian_ with an incident which amused me greatly at the time, and
still seems to have a moral that one needs not to point. While lying
at Spithead, a number of the midshipmen were sent ashore to visit the
dock yard,--professional improvement. When they returned, the
lieutenants in charge were full of the block-making processes. The
ingenuity of the machinery, the variety and beauty of the blocks, the
many excellences, had the changes rung upon them, meal after meal,
till I could hear the whir of the w