.

Who could it be if not his Royal Highness the Prince Regent?
Yes, it was he.

Had not our Major scanned those features often enough--in his own mirror?
The Port Admiral was inviting Captain Crang to step into the gig.
The Prince nodded a careless, haughty assent, shrinking a little, however, as Mr.Wapshott passed down the clockwork of the catamaran for his royal inspection.

Recovering himself, he glanced at it perfunctorily and nodded to the sailors to give way and pull towards the hull of the infernal machine.
The curiosity which had brought him down to Portsmouth to inspect it seemed, however, to have evaporated.

The gig fell alongside the coffin-like log, and the Port Admiral, having taken the clockwork out of Captain Crang's hand, had launched into an explanation of its working when the Prince signified hurriedly that he had seen as much as he desired.