People were talking about him, although he had not as yet enforced the extreme measures which made him so unpopular.

"We have at last," so ran the letter, "seen the little captain of the Boreas of whom so much has been said.

He came up just before dinner, much heated, and was very silent; but seemed, according to the old adage, to think the more.

He declined drinking any wine; but after dinner, when the president, as usual, gave the three following toasts, 'the King,' 'the Queen and Royal Family,' and 'Lord Hood,' this strange man regularly filled his glass, and observed that those were always bumper toasts with him; which, having drank, he uniformly passed the bottle, and relapsed into his former taciturnity.

It was impossible, during this visit, for any of us to make out his real character; there was such a reserve and sternness in his behaviour, with occasional sallies, though very transient, of a superior mind.