"Did I know anything about my marriage?" the son continued; "but listen further." I naturally tried, after all these fabulous events, to murmur out my thanks, but was interrupted by the king, who said, "Now come up to the palace; you can eat your soup with us, and the regimental chaplain must accompany you." Giddy with the thought of all that had happened, I followed with the chaplain, who was hardly less astonished than I was, the king and his suite to the palace, and as soon as we had entered the audience-room, where all the court was assembled together with her majesty and this young lady, the king advanced, and asked me, "Who does he think he has to thank for all this ?" I answered with a low bow, "Besides God, my most gracious king and his most illustrious consort." To which his majesty remarked, "There he's right; but look ye here, this young and charming woman did the most for him. Has he nothing to say to her? She is not proud, and I know not married. What does he think of it? he's now a dean, and has his pocket full of ducats. Will he try his luck, and fancy he is all alone with her ?" Half mad with joy and hope, I raised my eyes, and looked at the poor girl, who was blushing and trembling before me, and who could not raise her eyes from the ground. All were silent, though at intervals a slight sound of laughter could be heard in the room. In spite of all my good fortune, I was even more embarrassed than I had been an hour before when forced to mount the drums; but I collected myself, and in a few moments said, "His majesty the king, to whom I owe all my good fortune, has inspired me with the courage to ask you before this great assembly, whether you will accompany me in my wanderings on the troubled path of life, like the angel Raphael formerly guided the youthful Tobias?” She immediately gave me her hand, silent and trembling, which I pressed with ardour to my lips, and her majesty had scarcely bidden God to bless us, when the king added, "Regimental chaplain, come hither and marry them. Afterwards we'll have our dinner; but I must get them off my hands to-day." The chaplain, with a deep bow, remarked, "It is impossible, your majesty; the young couple have not been asked in church." "Nonsense!" the king objected; "I asked them myself long ago. Come, and marry them as quickly as you can, for I am hungry. hungry. Next Sunday you can ask them in church as many times as you like." Although the chaplain urged various reasons, all was of no avail. The marriage took place that very hour, and my parents can now see why it was impossible for me to invite them. "I really must be dreaming," the old pastor now said; "why, it's stranger than any story in the Arabian Nights.' A grenadier made a dean! But what did the members of the consistory say to it? I cannot imagine." 66 or I should have "They kept me so long," the young man replied, come to share my joy with you eight days ago. I had scarcely announced myself, and handed in my diploma with a request to be ordained, when the gentlemen, as may be easily conceived, declared the whole affair impossible, and sought to demonstrate this to his majesty in a long petition. The king returned it with these words, written with his own hand, on the margin: "I have examined him myself. If he does not understand Latin he can afford to keep some one who does. I do not understand Latin myself. "FREDERICK WILLIAM." "As they did not dare to trouble the king again in the matter, they proceeded to ordain me, after an examination, to which I voluntarily submitted." The young man thus ended his story, and our kind readers can easily imagine the rest. We need only remark that our hero made an excellent dean, and for many years held the living of P. In conclusion, we are bound to state that the above anecdote is historically true, and that we have merely repeated the family tradition. Still we thought it better to refrain from giving the real names, as the descendants of our illustrious grenadier might not desire the story to be publicly known in connexion with themselves. "ALL SERENE." BY J. E. CARPENTER. ALL serene, and calm, and tender, On the wave the moonlight sleeps ; Countless stars come out in splendour, The rose, the glittering dewdrop, steeps ; The silent silv'ry clouds are sailing Mid-way earth and heav'n between, The distant song-bird's note is failing— All serene, and calm, and lonely, Not a breath steals o'er the sea; 'Tis the hour for lovers only Come then, dearest, come to me; I will linger by thy bower, 'Neath the branches still unseen, Come love, 'tis the witching hour- NEW ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS. THE results of two expeditions to the Arctic regions one of them of especial interest and importance-have been recently printed by order of the House of Commons. The first refers to the voyage of the Prince Albert discovery vessel (Lady Franklin's private Arctic expedition), commanded by Mr. W. Kennedy, and accompanied by Lieutenant Bellot, of the French navy; the second to that of the screw steam-vessel Isabel, also a private expedition, under the command of Captain G. A. Inglefield, R.N. The Prince Albert's intended course was to Griffith's Island and Wellington Straits, but driven first upon Leopold Island, its commander was obliged to take refuge in Prince Regent Inlet. On a subsequent attempt being made to reach Leopold Island, Mr. Kennedy became sepa rated in a boat with four men from his ship; and was thus left, after reaching the island, from the 9th of September to the 17th of October, when he was rescued by M. Bellot, with a party of seven men from the ship, which had found a safe anchorage in Batty Bay. Luckily that Mr. Kennedy found on Leopold Island the stores left by Sir James Ross for Sir John Franklin, or the party must have perished miserably. Excursions were after this made along the base of the all but continu ous chain of lofty, abrupt headlands, which extend from Batty Bay to Fury Beach, and on the 29th of March a more complete party started by Cresswell Bay to Brentford Bay. Here, on the 6th of April, they discovered a passage leading from Prince Regent Inlet to the western sea. This channel was only about two miles wide, but appeared to be deep, and had open water in parts. Its length was about twelve miles. This channel is supposed to be only one of several that separate North Somerset from Boothia. The neighbourhood was much frequented by reindeer. Crossing the western sea-a prolongation of Rae's Victoria Strait-the party reached Prince of Wales's Land. This they crossed, after some delay caused by storm and haze, first in a due west direction, over very low lying land, and then north, over an extensive table-land, till a succession of lofty hills forced them to the eastward, bringing them back again to Victoria Strait, along the shores of which they dragged their lengthy way to Lyon's Point, and thence to the well-known Cape Walker, and they returned to their ship by the coast of North Somerset and Whaler Point. There is some trifling discrepancy in the map that accompanies this narrative, and the narrative itself. For example, at the point where Messrs. Kennedy and Bellot reached Prince of Wales's Land, and now called Kennedy Bay, described as very low-lying land, we have on the map Mount Washington. Then, again, the interior of Prince of Wales's Land is described as "remarkable only for its tame and uniform level, not having so much as a lake, or the slightest rivulet, to relieve its monotony." On the map we have Fisher Lake, Colquhoun Range, and Mount Cowie, in the heart of the country. Again, by the map, the party reached, on the 25th of April, the shores of Ommaney Bay. There is no notice of this fact in Mr. Kennedy's report. Probably these additions, as also that of Bellot Strait, came from M. Bellot, the French officer, of whom Mr. Kennedy says, "I cannot find words to express my admiration of the conduct of M. Bellot, who accompanied me throughout this trying journey, directing at all times the course by his superior scientific attainments, and at the same time taking an equal share with the men in dragging the sledge, and ever encouraging them in their arduous labours by his native cheerful disposition." The Isabel screw schooner, having, through the failure of Captain Beatson's intended expedition, been thrown on the hands of Lady Franklin, Commander Inglefield undertook to proceed in her to the west coast of Baffin's Bay, from which, if the story of the Renovation is to be credited, those icebergs probably drifted on which the vessels were seen. The Isabel accordingly sailed on the 5th of July, 1852, reaching Godhaven, on the coast of Greenland, on the 12th of August. On the 22nd, the little steamer was becalmed off the great glacier of Petowak; and on the 23rd, the Eskimo settlement, at Wolstenholme Sound-the site, according to Adam Beck, of the murder of Franklin and his crew-was thoroughly examined, without traces, it is almost needless to say, being found of any such an event having occurred there. Sailing hence into Whale Sound, Commander Inglefield discovered two extensive inlets opening away to the northward and eastward, with an unbroken horizon, and no sign of ice or obstruction. This passage -named after Sir Roderick Murchison, the excellent President of the Royal Geographical Society is supposed by Sir Francis Beaufort to be the northern limits of the continent of Greenland; and nothing but the sense of his duty to Lady Franklin prevented Commander Inglefield searching the course of these fair straits. On the 26th, Cape Alexander was rounded, under sail and steam, and Smith's Sound, at the head of Baffin's Bay, entered. This strait, marked so narrow on our charts, was found to be about thirty-six miles across; and Commander Inglefield says, that as his eye strained forwards into the clear expanse of apparently open water, he could not but admit to his mind that a great sea was beyond, and that the so-called Sound in reality led into the great Polynia of the Russians. As if in support of this view of the case, the natural snow-clad aspect of the bleak cliffs that surround the head of the bay seemed changed by the presence of a more genial clime, the side of Cape Alexander itself being streaked with bright green grasses and moss, and the neighbouring hills to the northward were black instead of snow-capped. After determining the configuration of the shores of this great inlet into the open Arctic Ocean, for a distance of 140 miles further north than had been effected by any former navigator, Commander Inglefield was com pelled, partly by circumstances over which he had no control, and partly by stress of weather, to quit this unknown sea; and following down the west coast as close as he could, he succeeded in sailing through Glacier Strait into Jones's Sound on the 31st of August. This sound was explored as far as long. 84 deg., at which point the coast suddenly turned away in a north-west direction, the south shore trending rather northerly; but as far as the eye could scan in the west horizon no land could be discovered, though great masses of ice were driving rapidly down. Sir Francis Beaufort deduces from this, that Jones's Sound is another channel to the northward through the great cluster of Parry Islands-another opening, indeed, to the mysterious Polynia of the Arctic Regions. Gales from the westward, accompanied by snowdrift and thick fogs, and the impossibility of finding shelter for a winter season, obliged the gallant commander to forego further examination of this third open sea he had discovered; but undaunted by the approach of winter, though unfurnished with the means of passing it in an Arctic climate, he had the generous boldness to run up Barrow's Strait before quitting Baffin's Bay, in order to offer his surplus of provisions to Sir Edward Belcher's ships, and to bring home intelligence of their then state to government and to their numerous friends. Considering the size of his vessel, the constant demands upon his time, as he seldom quitted the deck day or night, and the amount of coast explored, and discoveries effected, we do not feel surprised at Sir Edward Parry ranking Commander Inglefield among the most distinguished of our Arctic navigators, and Sir Francis Beaufort qualifying the voyage as one of the most extraordinary on record. ,, It appears from despatches received from Sir Edward Belcher's expedition, that Sir Edward had re-examined Beechy Island and the adjacent coast with great care, without finding any records of the missing expedition. Sir Edward does not think that Sir John Franklin removed in haste from these winter quarters, nor does he think that Cape Riley was a magnetic station. He attributes the difficulty in finding records of the missing expedition to the fact that the cairns are overlooked, or destroyed by animals. This was even the case with those left the year before by Captain Austin's expedition, and, adds Sir Edward, "We have not been able, even with this very open season, to trace the large supplies left at Navy Board Inlet by the North Star, and no beacon marks their whereabouts. How, then, are the distressed to avail themselves of this depôt ?” The instructions given last year to Sir Edward Belcher comprised the two great objects of endeavouring to pass up Wellington Channel with one sailing vessel and one steamer, and of advancing with a similar force towards Melville Island. We find from the latest despatches brought home by the Isabel, and dated Beechey Island, 7th of September, 1852, that Sir Edward had proceeded, in consonance, with these instructions, with the Assistance and Pioneer tender up Wellington Channel, which, even to the time of the last despatches, was open as far as the eye could see, Captain Kellett had proceeded at the same time with the Resolute and Intrepid tender in the direction of Melville Island. A prominent feature of the sledge parties this spring, was to meet on the meridian of 108 deg. west, and in the parallel of 77 deg. north. Sir Edward Belcher had also pointed out, that should Melville Island be reached by either of the two vessels, it was not improbable that an opening might be found by Graham Moore Bay into the Queen's Channel. In the mean time, the North Star was to winter at Beechey Island, to construct a compact house capable of giving shelter to sixty persons, and to send out this spring sledge parties, chiefly under Dr. M'Cormick, to form depôts, and to explore North Devon, Jones's Sound, and the land northerly. By the latest despatches, the asylum called "Northumberland House," already in progress, was nine feet high, thirty feet long, and twenty-five feet broad. In order that the searching expeditions, or, perchance, any recovered expedition, may not be distressed for stores towards the fall of the present |