changed horses my carriage drew up between two rows of National Guards,
who were keeping back a considerable crowd of people. At the carriage
door appeared the Mayor with his scarf round his waist, saluting me with
this remark: "Sir, this place is but a hole, but it is a hole in which
hearts devoted to your august family are throbbing;" while at the other
the village priest and his clergy, all in surplice and alb, struck up

Soldats du drapeau tricolore
D'Orieans toi qui la's Porte,

and so right through the Parisian to a brass accompaniment.

My examination was held in the great hall of the Prefecture of the Navy
at Brest, before a board of officers, engineers, and professors. It was
a public one; but what alarmed me most at its outset was the presence of
all the pupils of the Naval School, who riled the tiers of seats on one
side of the hall. Luckily the sight of some old chums amongst them
cheered me up, and as the examination went pretty well I soon saw on
their youthful faces, just as actors, they say, read their coming
success on their audience at the theatre, that my cause was won, and
that I was accepted, not only by the scientific big-wigs but by the
universal suffrages of my contemporaries. Yet I was rejoiced when the
sitting was over!

Some days later, at L'Orient, I joined the Sirene frigate, Commander
d'Oysonville, as midshipman, and started on an ocean voyage. This cruise
was uneventful, except for a few little incidents such as always occur
in a sailor's life.

Thus, being in the maintop one day, when topsails were being reefed in a