hailed to larboard. She hoisted her name; it was the Illinois, an American ship, on her way to England.
At this moment Lieutenant H——— informed me that we were passing Cape Race point. We were now in the rich coasts where are obtained cod-fish, three of which would suffice to supply England and America if all the roe were hatched. The day passed without any remarkable occurence; no accident had as yet thrown Fabian and Harry Drake together, for the captain and I never lost sight of them. In the evening the same harmless amusement, the same reading, and songs in the grand saloon called forth, as usual, frantic applauses. As an extraordinary occurrence a lively discussion broke out between a Northerner and a Texan. The latter demanded an Emperor for the Southern States. Happily this political discussion, which threatened to degenerate into a quarrel, was put to an end to by the timely arrival of an imaginary despatch, addressed to the Ocean Times and conceived in these terms: "Captain Semmes, Minister of War, has made the South compensate for its ravages in Alabama."
CHAPTER XVII
THE MAD WOMAN
Leaving the brilliantly lighted saloon I went on deck with Captain Corsican. The night was dark; not a star in the firmament; an impenetrable gloom surrounded the ship. The windows of the saloon shone like the mouths of furnaces; the man on watch, heavily pacing the poop, was scarcely discernible, but one could breathe the fresh air, and the captain inhaled it with expanded lungs.
"I was stifled in the saloon," said he; "here at least I can breathe. I require my hundred cubic yards of pure air every twenty-four hours, or I get half suffocated."
"Breathe, captain, breathe at your ease," said I to him; "the breeze does not stint your wants. Oxygen is a good thing, but it must be confessed Parisians and Londoners know it only by reputation."
"Yes," replied the captain, "and they prefer carbonic acid. Ah well! everyone to his liking; for my own part I detest it, even in champagne."
