The five months had elapsed, according to my calculations, when one morning I heard a grating noise close to me; soon afterwards I perceived the teeth of a saw entering my domicile, and I correctly judged that some ship was cutting her way through the ice.  Although I could not make myself heard, I waited in anxious expectation of deliverance.  The saw approached very near to where I was sitting, and I was afraid that I should be wounded, if not cut in halves; but just as it was within two inches of my nose, it was withdrawn.  The fact was, that I was under the main floe, which had been frozen together, and the firm ice above having been removed and pushed away, I rose to the surface.  A current of fresh air immediately poured into the small incision made by the saw, which not only took away my breath from its sharpness, but brought on a spitting of blood.  Hearing the sound of voices, I considered my deliverance as certain.  Although I understood very little English, I heard the name of Captain Parry frequently mentioned—­a name, I presume, that your highness is well acquainted with.

* * * * *

“Pooh! never heard of it,” replied the pacha.

“I am surprised, your highness; I thought every body must have heard of that adventurous navigator.  I may here observe that I have since read his voyages, and he mentions, as a curious fact, the steam which was emitted from the ice—­which was nothing more than the hot air escaping from my cave when it was cut through—­a singular point, as it not only proves the correctness of his remarks, but the circumstance of my having been there, as I am now describing it to your highness.”

* * * * *

But, alas! my hopes soon vanished:  the voices became more faint, I felt that I was plunged under the floe to make room for the passage of the ship, and when I rose, the water which had filled the incision made by the saw, froze hard, and I was again closed in—­perhaps for ever.  I now became quite frantic with despair, I tore my clothes, and dashed my head against the corners of the cave, and tried to put an end to my hated existence.  At last, I sank down exhausted with my own violent efforts, and continued sullen for several days.

But there is a buoyant spirit in our composition which raises our heads above the waters of despair.  Hope never deserts us, not even in an iceberg.  She attends us and supports us to the last; and although we reject her kind offices in our fury, she still watches by us, ready to assist and console us, when we are inclined to hearken to her encouraging whispers.

I once more listened to her suggestions, and for six months fed upon them, aided by occasional variations of the flesh of the sea-horse.  It was now late in the summer, and the ice in which I was bound up had evidently melted away.  One morning I was astonished by perceiving that the light of the sun seemed to change its position regularly every quarter of an hour.  Had it done so occasionally during the day, and at no stated intervals, I should have imagined that the ice that I was inclosed in, altered its position from the winds and currents; but the regularity astonished me.  I watched it, and I found that the same phenomenon occurred, but at shorter intervals, and it continued until the light shifted from side to side every minute.