ight
do afterwards) proposed at once to leave the desolate, famine-stricken
spot.

But though this was debated warmly, it was not carried. They had already
anchored, as it were, and they resolved to dine "starving," and to
grumble all the time of dinner when no one subject was talked about
except the _friture_. It was a miserable spectacle to witness, but
confirming the proposition, not at all new, that the French care more
about eating than even John Bull.

CHAPTER IX.

Paris Regatta--Absentees--Novelties--New Brunswickers--Steam
yachts--Canoe race--Canoe chase--Entangled--M. Forcat--Challenge.

While the voyage in the Rob Roy's dingey on Sunday was such as we have
described, it was a busy time a little further down the river at St.
Cloud, being the first day of the Paris Regatta, which continued also on
the Monday, and then our British Regatta occupied the next four days.
These two were under separate committees. The British Regatta was
managed by experienced oarsmen, and His Royal Highness the Commodore of
the Canoe Club was patron--not a merely nominal patron but presiding
frequently at the committee meetings held at Marlborough House, and
generously contributing to the funds. The Emperor of the French also
gave us his name, and prizes to the amount of 1000_l_. were offered in a
series of contests open to all the world. In these better days now the
rowing world of France could lately count upon the patronage of their
distinguished Foreign Minister, M. Waddington, who rowed in the same boat
with me at Cambridge--'ages ago.'

But this experiment of holding an international regatta in a foreign
country was quite novel, and there were difficulties around it which it
is not convenient to detail.

Notwithstanding the hasty predictions of people who could not approve of
what was originated and carried out without requiring their advice, the
regatta brought together a splendid body of the best oarsmen and
canoeists in the world from England, France, and America. Three
Champions of England for the first time contended at the same place. The
most renowned watermen came from Thames and Tyne and Humber, and
eight-oared boats raced for the first time on the Seine. The weather was
magnificent, the course was in perfect order, and better than almost any
other of equal length near any capital; the arrangements made were the
very best that might be contrived under the peculiarly difficult
circumstances which