t
he was awake, and, my heart being full, I cried out cheerily, "Good
news! good news! the gunpowder did its work! The ice is ruptured and we
are afloat, Mr. Tassard, afloat--and progressing north!"

He looked at me vacantly, and giving his head a shake exclaimed, "How
can I crawl from this mound? My strength is gone."

If I was amazed that the joyful intelligence I had delivered produced no
other response than this querulous inquiry, I was far more astonished by
the sound of his voice. It was the most cracked and venerable pipe that
ever tickled the throat of old age, a mingling of wailing falsettos and
of hollow gasping growls, the whole very weak. I threw the clothes off
him, and said, "Do you wish to rise? I will bring your breakfast here if
you wish."

He looked at me, but made no answer. I bawled again, and observed (by
the dim lanthorn light) that he watched my lips with an air of
attention; and whilst I waited for his reply he said, "I don't hear
you."

Anxious to ascertain to what extent his hearing was impaired, I kneeled
on the deck, and putting my lips to his ear said, not very loud, "Will
you come to the cook-house?" which he did not hear; and then louder,
"Will you come to the cook-house?" which he did not hear either. I
believed him stone-deaf till, on roaring with all the power of my lungs,
he answered "Yes."

I took him by the hands and hauled him gently on to his feet, and had
to continue holding him or he must have fallen. Time was beginning with
him when he had gone to bed, and the remorseless old soldier had
completely finished his work whilst his victim slept. I viewed the
Frenchman whilst I grasped his hands, and there stood before me a
shrunk, tottering, deaf, bowed, feeble old man. What was yesterday a
polished head was now a shrivelled pate, as though the very skull had
shrunk and left the skin to ripple into wrinkles and sit loose and
puckered. His hands trembled excessively. But his lower jaw was held in
its place by his teeth, and this perpetuated in the aged dwindled
countenance something of the likeness of the fierce and sinister visage
that had confronted me yesterday. I was thunder-struck by the
alteration, and stood overwhelmed with awe, confusion, and alarm. Then,
re-collecting my spirits, I supported the miserable relic to the fire,
putting his bench to the dresser that he might have a back to lean
against.

He could scarce feed himself--indeed, he could hardly hold his chin o