garland of lilies on the brows of one of you, and over the neck of the other she will cast the ancient silver chain, which has been given to her by the Steward. It is done. Ye may rise, and the Flitch shall be delivered to you. Hark to those thrilling shouts! The people exult in your triumph. Bells ring-drums rattle-trumpets resound. The other instruments strike up. All is not over yet. Ye have to be placed in the antique chair, and according to usage, borne on men's shoulders round the boundaries of the old Priory, which in the days of your predecessors stood hereabouts. And see! the chair is brought out for you. It is decked with rich though faded tapestry, woven with armorial bearings, which ye must know well, since they are your own, and with a device, which each of you may apply to the other-Toujours Fidèle. And now ye are seated. Now ye are raised upon eight stalwart shoulders-and again the Procession is formed to lead And you on. Not so numerous now as heretofore, for only those, who have rightful part in the ceremony, may join it. But the Flitch shall be borne before you, and the gentle lute and mandolin, and the shrill pipes, and the loud hautboy shall precede you, and gladden all hearts with their strains. the reverend man, who has just blessed you, shall walk in front. so shall the Lord of the Manor, who has yet a dearer title to your love and honour, and who calls one of you daughter. And so shall another whose title is the same as his, and who calls the other son. And the worthy steward who has watched over you shall be with them. And the flower-girls shall hang garlands upon the chair in which ye sit, and sing simple songs in your praise. And the Bachelors and Maidens shall follow after you, and join in chorus. And much people shall attend you, shouting. And hundreds shall look on, and cheer and bless before. Thus escorted, shall ye trace out the precincts of the once vast and stately edifice. That done, the Ceremonial will be ended. you as Then shall you go home lovingly as you came, and shall take with you hundreds and hundreds to enjoy the unbounded hospitalities of Monkbury Place. Many a cup shall be drained to you-and ye shall make merry and rejoice. And thus shall end a pleasant and memorable day. And so, Fond Pair, farewell! All happiness betide you! L'Enboy. A word more. Long and happily did our Loving Pair live together. Nor were they separated at the last, for the same blow chilled the hearts of both-realising what Rose herself had sung of her husband's progenitors. To the other candidates for the Flitch, whose unsuccessful attempts to gain it have been here recorded, might be applied the couplet which old Chaucer has put into the mouth of the merry Wife of Bath The Bacon was not fet for them I trow, THE END. THE CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA IN THE BALTIC. [We have much pleasure in laying the following interesting Narrative before our readers, written, as will be apparent, by one of the officers of the ship, whose performance it describes.-ED. N. M. M.] On the 8th of March, 1854, H.M.S. Miranda, having then been in commission only nine days, was fitting out at Sheerness with the usual despatch and activity for which our service is so justly noted, when orders were received from the Admiralty to prepare her for sea within twentyfour hours. At first the thing seemed impossible. A few only of the officers had joined, barely half a ship's company had been entered, provisions, water, and stores were not yet received, top-gallant masts were down, sails unbent, and various other deficiencies too numerous to mention had to be rectified before she could be considered in an efficient state to cope with the winds and waves of the North Sea. All hands, however, turned to with a will. Work continued during the whole night hoisting in and stowing provisions and stores, receiving water, lashing and securing spars, boats, guns, &c., and preparing for sea generally. Two officers were sent from the flag-ship at an hour's notice, and a number of marines and seamen from the ordinary to complete her complement, and by seven o'clock the following evening (the 9th) the moorings had been left, and the ship proceeded gallantly past the Nore under steam and sail, to carry out her secret mission. I use the term "secret," as applied to the officers and ship's company; the captain not being at liberty to divulge to them the orders he had received. Never, I suppose, since the last war has a ship been bundled off to sea so unexpectedly, and in such an unprepared condition as was the Miranda. Many of the officers had not yet received their outfits. No mess had been formed; and consequently we were destitute of mess utensils, steward, cook, furniture, and should have been of "grub," too, with the exception of her Majesty's most unpalatable allowance, had it not been for the energy of an assistant-surgeon sent to us for the cruise from the flag-ship, who took the thing in hand in the hour he had to spare, and laid in a quantity of groceries and butcher's meat, with a small proportion of beer and other liquors, which fortunately arrived on board at the last moment. After a hard night's work, getting things to rights with our "green" hands, there came a time of awful suspense about eight in the morning as to the probability of our having any breakfast, which was happily dispelled by the appearance of a large dish of fried liver and bacon cooked for us, secundum artem, by the ship's cook, and an adequate supply of coffee. Casks were inverted, and boxes put into requisition for seats, and we made use of a few plates, cups, and knives, of various sizes and patterns, which had luckily been sent on board by a speculating mess outfitter as samples. No growling was heard, however. A jolly spirit seemed to pervade everybody, which, coupled with the excitement as to where we were bound, and for what purpose, with conjectures that we were not hurried off in this way for nothing, kept us all alive, and made us forget all discomforts and inconveniences. The ship's company were now divided into watches, and stationed at quarters, and at sunset we cleared for action, and fired three rounds, blank cartridge, in a short space of time, which would have done us credit had we been six months in commission instead of ten days. Nothing particular occurred during our passage across the North Sea towards the coast of Denmark, and at four A.M. on the 13th the Skaw Lighthouse, on the northern extremity of Jutland, was sighted, and before eight on the following morning we passed between Elsinore, or Elsineur, as it is there called, and Helsingborg, saluting Kronborg Castle, without stopping. The morning was beautiful-a fine clear sky, with a fresh, bracing wind; and, I think, few on board did not feel elated at the first view of these foreign coasts, new to so many of us at present, but before long to become quite familiar to our eyes, as in our imaginations the entrance to a future stirring scene of action. About two in the afternoon we anchored in the outer roads of Copenhagen, outside the Tre Kroner battery, an order having been issued a few days previous to our arrival forbidding any men-of-war, except their own, to enter the inner roadstead. Two officers were immediately sent on shore with despatches for the minister, and to order a supply of coals to be immediately sent on board. The captain being slightly unwell did not land, which gave rise to several erroneous reports in the newspapers that he was seriously indisposed. Our arrival caused great consternation among a number of Finnish merchant ships which were lying in the outer roads. Their skippers thinking, doubtless, that war was declared, and that we had come express to take them, went on shore in all haste, and outbid one another for the steam-tugs, and many of those who could not obtain the steampower endangered themselves and cargo by running inside the batteries under sail. The wind being very fresh from the south-eastward, and a strong current setting up the Sound, the coal lightermen refused to come alongside that night; but the next day, although the weather was not much better, we persuaded them to come, and by daylight on the following morning (the 16th) we had completed coaling and were ready for sea again. At eight A.M. his Excellency Andrew Buchanan, British minister at the court of Denmark, visited the ship to communicate to the captain that intelligence had just been received that the harbour of Revel was clear of ice, and immediately on his leaving the ship we weighed, and proceeded towards the Baltic. Having now left the last port that we should touch at, the intelligence was circulated that we were bound to the Gulf of Finland to reconnoitre the ports of Port Baltic and Revel; to ascertain the state of the ice and to discover whether any portions of the Russian fleets remained at either place. The necessity for the caution which had been observed with regard to the knowledge of our destination was now apparent, as in these days of electric telegraphs and quick messages the news of our approach might have preceded us to Revel, and if it should have been clear of ice, several men-of-war might then have been sent out either to prevent our entering the Gulf of Finland, or to intercept us when returning with our intelligence. On the 19th we entered the Gulf of Finland, and the same morning had a little excitement in observing two sail, a barque and brig, distant about eight miles from us, and lying at anchor off Dager Ort, an island on the south-western extremity of the Gulf, weigh apparently in haste, and stand to the southward. Shortly afterwards they altered their course to the eastward, and finally to the north-west. From their motions and appearance we took them at first to be men-of-war, but, on nearer approach, discovered them to be merchant vessels, probably alarmed at seeing us, and doubtful which way to shape their course in order to escape. Early in the afternoon the peculiarly cutting feeling of a light easterly wind, as well as the vicinity of several merchantmen standing up under very easy sail, warned us that we were approaching ice. Our suspicions were soon confirmed by the appearance of numerous white specks on the water, which increased in size and solidity as we steamed on, until at five P.M. we entered large fields of loose ice, varying from six to seven feet in thickness, and patches of smooth black ice from three to six inches, with small openings and channels of clear water occasionally, which we made for, if practicable, pushing our way on until eight o'clock, when we became so firmly fixed in a mass nearly eight feet thick that we could get ahead no further, and fearing the fans of the screw might be injured by backing out again, shortened sail, banked the fires up, and let the ship remain until daylight. At daylight, having got the steam up again, we backed out of the same channel we had made on entering, and proceeded under steam and fore and aft canvas to the north-westward, sufficiently far to observe that the ice on the northern shore was fast, and no passage through it to the eastward was to be discerned from the mast-head. We then altered our course, and proceeded along the edge to the southward and westward, entering it again in latitude 59 deg. 35 min. north, longitude 23 deg. 32 min. east, making our way through the slight openings and the thinnest ice we could pick out towards Port Baltic. As we now crashed through the ice, dashing it right and left with our sharp bow, and sending innumerable small pieces ringing with a pleasant sound over its smooth surface to some distance, how we inwardly thanked and esteemed the inventor of steam-power! and still more so was this the case when we observed and passed about a mile distant a luckless merchant barque, which had tried the Gulf too early in the season, and become permanently fixed there until such time as it should please its inexorable captor to break up and disperse. During the forenoon we passed Port Baltic, at the distance of about five miles. A battery of apparently no great strength stands at the northern end of the town, and commands the mole and bay. The town is insignificant, looking more like a village, and the absence of any marked hills or woods renders it flat and uninteresting to the eye. The lighthouse stands on a point, which has rather a singular and abrupt termination, about two miles and a half distant from the town. The only vessels at anchor there were three schooners and a brig in the mole, and a schooner frozen up in the bay, all of them apparently merchantmen. Early in the afternoon we sighted the long, low, fir-covered island of Nargen off Revel, which has a handsome, strongly built white stone lighthouse at the northern extremity, and a battery called the Star Fort at the southern extremity, commanding the entrance into Revel between it and the mainland. Now came the interesting part of our cruise. Was, or was not, the fleet in Revel? Would the ice allow us to proceed far enough to see? And should we get peppered by the batteries for our impudence?—These were the questions that occurred to us. Dinner, although the important hour of the day for that meal, which is eaten earlier on board a ship than on shore, had arrived, was entirely forgotten, and we were all on deck with our glasses, anxiously endeavouring, as the city with its lofty-spired churches and important-looking Domborg, or citadel, gradually opened itself clear of the envious point which intervened between us, to be the first to get sight of a Russian man-of-war. The supposition, which afterwards proved correct, that there was no battery on the north end of Nargen, as well as the appearance of some patches of clear water, while the south channel was completely covered with massive ice, glittering with combs of frozen snow, decided us to steer in that direction, and at three P.M., having forced our way during the latter part of the navigation with the greatest difficulty, we rounded the northern point of the island, and commanded a full and complete view of Revel, with its batteries, mole, harbour, and roadstead. Not a vessel was to be seen. All was empty. There was not even a small merchantman to deceive us momentarily into the belief that it was one of the large Russian fleet we expected to behold. There were two reports in circulation before we left England; one, that the portion of the fleet which generally winters at Revel had been withdrawn to Helsingfors, or Cronstadt, before the ice began to form; the other, that there had been a particularly mild season in the month of December, and that the ships, taking advantage of the partial breaking up of the ice, had, by great exertions, and cutting their way through large portions, succeeded in reaching one of those ports. Having now completely satisfied ourselves that nothing was there, and being unable, on account of the great thickness and density of the ice, to proceed further into the bay, we with difficulty turned the ship round and retraced our steps towards Port Baltic. The coast of the Gulf of Finland is by no means striking or picturesque -there are no bold, romantic-looking crags or bays along its shores in this part; no towering snow-capped mountains to relieve the background. Occasionally we saw a strongly-built comfortable-looking mansion, or the tall spire of some village church, with its collection of small dwellings clustered round it, while here and there, perhaps, the eye might catch a wooded spot, which might be pretty when covered with foliage in their brief and glorious summer, but now looked brown and desolate. Taking it on the whole, the appearance was not inviting. About eight in the evening darkness again overtook us off Port Baltic, and, being unable to see our way towards the thin ice, or open channels, we became once more fixed, and banked the fires up for the time being. During the night it froze very hard, the thermometer ranging from 10 deg. to 12 deg. below freezing point, and the next morning, on getting the steam up, we found ourselves quite unable to move. In order to extricate ourselves from so awkward a position, we rolled the ship by running the ship's company quickly from one side to the other, and loading the 68-pounder pivot-gun with shot, we fired it over the stern at extreme depression. This broke the ice away partially, |