I tried to recall her childish figure and features. I thought over all I had heard concerning her. I thought she was not such a thing as they could make a mere pageant of; for _that_ there is too much within--too little without. And what _will_ they make of her? For at eighteen she will hardly make anything of them--I mean of the men and women round her. It is of the woman I think, more than of the queen; for as a part of the state machinery she will do quite as well as another--better, perhaps: so far her youth and sex are absolutely in her favour, or rather in _our_ favour. If she be but simple-minded, and true-hearted, and straightforward, with the common portion of intellect--if a royal education have not blunted in her the quick perceptions and pure kind instincts of the woman--if she has only had fair play, and carries into business plain distinct notions of right and wrong--and the fine moral sense that is not to be confounded by diplomatic verbiage and expediency--she will do better for us than a whole cabinet full of cut and dried officials, with Talleyrand at the head of them. And what a fair heritage is this which has fallen to her! A land young like herself--a land of hopes--and fair, most fair! Does she know--does she care any thing about it?--while hearts are beating warm for her, and voices bless her--and hands are stretched out towards her--even from these wild lake shores?[46] These thoughts were in my mind, or something like to these, as with aid of sail and oar we were gliding across the bay of Manitoolin. This bay is about three miles wide at the entrance, and runs about twelve miles in depth, in a southern direction. As we approached the further end, we discerned the whole line of shore, rising in bold and beautiful relief from the water, to be covered with wigwams, and crowded with Indians. Suddenly we entered a little opening or channel, which was not visible till we were just upon it, and rounding a promontory, to my infinite delight and surprise, we came upon an unexpected scene,--a little bay within the bay. It was a beautiful basin, nearly an exact circle, of about three miles in circumference; in the centre lay a little wooded island, and all around, the shores rose sloping from the margin of the lake, like an amphitheatre, covered with wigwams and lodges, thick as they could stand amid intermingled trees; and beyond these arose the tall pine forest crowning and enclosing the whole. Some hundred canoes were darting hither and thither on the waters, or gliding along the shore, and a beautiful schooner lay against the green bank--its tall masts almost mingling with the forest trees, and its white sails half furled, and half gracefully drooping.