complain, and, indeed, the singularity of our
fate reserved such wonderful compensation for us that we had no right
to accuse it as yet.

That day I commenced the journal of these adventures which has enabled
me to relate them with more scrupulous exactitude and minute detail.

11th November, early in the morning. The fresh air spreading over the
interior of the Nautilus told me that we had come to the surface of the
ocean to renew our supply of oxygen. I directed my steps to the
central staircase, and mounted the platform.

It was six o'clock, the weather was cloudy, the sea grey, but calm.
Scarcely a billow. Captain Nemo, whom I hoped to meet, would he be
there? I saw no one but the steersman imprisoned in his glass cage.
Seated upon the projection formed by the hull of the pinnace, I inhaled
the salt breeze with delight.

By degrees the fog disappeared under the action of the sun's rays, the
radiant orb rose from behind the eastern horizon. The sea flamed under
its glance like a train of gunpowder. The clouds scattered in the
heights were coloured with lively tints of beautiful shades, and
numerous "mare's tails," which betokened wind for that day. But what
was wind to this Nautilus, which tempests could not frighten!

I was admiring this joyous rising of the sun, so gay, and so
life-giving, when I heard steps approaching the platform. I was
prepared to salute Captain Nemo, but it was his second (whom I had
already seen on the Captain's first visit) who appeared. He advanced
on the platform, not seeming to see me. With his powerful glass to his
eye, he scanned every point of the horizon with great attention. This
examination over, he approached the panel and pronounced a sentence in
exactly these terms. I have remembered it, for every morning it was
repeated under exactly the same conditions. It was thus worded:

"Nautron respoc lorni virch."

What it meant I could not say.

These words pronounced, the second descended. I thought that the
Nautilus was about to return to its submarine navigation. I regained
the panel and returned to my chamber.

Five days sped thus, without any change in our situation. Every
morning I mounted the platform. The same phrase was pronounced by the
same individual. But Captain Nemo did not appear.

I had made up my mind that I should never see him again, when, on the
16th November, on returning to my room with Ned and Conseil, I found
upon my table a note add