atch the tide,--all important
to reach Boulogne before sunrise on the 5th of August, when their
friends expected them. But no prince came.

Major Parquin, who had been one of the Strasburg conspirators, was
particularly unmanageable; and late in the afternoon he insisted
on going ashore to buy some cigars, saying that those on board
were detestable. In vain Persigny and Orsi, who in the prince's
absence considered themselves to be in command, assured him that to
land was impossible; Parquin would not recognize their authority.
The rest of the story I will tell in Count Orsi's own words. He
wrote his account in "Fraser's Magazine," 1879:--

"The wrath of the major was extreme. There was danger in his anger.
I consulted Persigny on the advisability of letting him go on shore,
with the distinct understanding that he should be accompanied by
me or by Charles Thelin."

The truth, it may be suspected, was that Parquin was drunk, or
that, having suspected the object of the expedition, he had some
especial object in going ashore, which he would not reveal to his
fellow-conspirators.

"Persigny," continues Count Orsi, "consented to the idea, and Parquin
and I got into the boat. The vessel was lying in the stream. Thelin
was with us. As we were walking to the cigar-shop, the major remarked
a boy sitting on a log of wood and feeding a tame eagle with shreds
of meat. The eagle had a chain fastened to one of its claws. The
major turned twice to look at it, and went on without saying a
word. On our way back to the boat, however, we saw the boy within
two yards of the landing-place. The major went up to him, and looking
at the eagle, said in French, 'Is it for sale?' The boy did not
understand him. 'My dear Major,' I said, 'I hope you do not intend
to buy that eagle. We have other things to attend to. For Heaven's
sake, come away!' 'Why not? I _will_ have it. Ask him what he asks
for it.'"

The major paid a sovereign for the eagle, and this unlucky purchase
was the cause that endless ridicule was cast on the expedition. It
has always been supposed that the eagle was one of the "properties"
provided for the occasion, and that it was intended to perch on the
Napoleon Column at Boulogne. It may well be supposed that this is
not far from the truth, and that Major Parquin had the eagle waiting
for him at Gravesend. Eagles are so very uncommon in England that
it is unlikely that a boy, without set purpose, would be waiting
with a ta