Chapter 45

CHAPTER XLV.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

Such is the conclusion of a history which I cannot expect everybodyto believe, for some people will believe nothing against thetestimony of their own experience. However, I am indifferent to theirincredulity, and they may believe as much or as little as they please.

The Stromboliotes received us kindly as shipwrecked mariners. Theygave us food and clothing. After waiting forty-eight hours, on the 31st of August, a small craft took us to Messina, where a few days'rest completely removed the effect of our fatigues.

On Friday, September the 4th, we embarked on the steamer Volturno,employed by the French Messageries Imperiales, and in three days morewe were at Marseilles, having no care on our minds except thatabominable deceitful compass, which we had mislaid somewhere andcould not now examine; but its inexplicable behaviour exercised mymind fearfully. On the 9th of September, in the evening, we arrivedat Hamburg.

I cannot describe to you the astonishment of Martha or the joy ofGräuben.

"Now you are a hero, Axel," said to me my blushing _fiancée,_ mybetrothed, "you will not leave me again!"

I looked tenderly upon her, and she smiled through her tears.

How can I describe the extraordinary sensation produced by the returnof Professor Liedenbrock? Thanks to Martha's ineradicable tattling,the news that the Professor had gone to discover a way to the centreof the earth had spread over the whole civilised world. Peoplerefused to believe it, and when they saw him they would not believehim any the more. Still, the appearance of Hans, and sundry pieces ofintelligence derived from Iceland, tended to shake the confidence ofthe unbelievers.

Then my uncle became a great man, and I was now the nephew of a greatman -which is not a privilege to be despised.

Hamburg gave a grand fete in our honour. A public audience was givento the Professor at the Johannæum, at which he told all about ourexpedition, with only one omission, the unexplained and inexplicablebehaviour of our compass. On the same day, with much state, hedeposited in the archives of the city the now famous document ofSaknussemm, and expressed his regret that circumstances over which hehad no control had prevented him from following to the very centre ofthe earth the track of the learned Icelander. He was modestnotwithstanding his glory, and he was all the more famous for hishumility.

So much honour could not but excite envy. There were those who enviedhim his fame; and as his theories, resting upon known facts, were inopposition to the systems of science upon the question of the centralfire, he sustained with his pen and by his voice remarkablediscussions with the learned of every country.

For my part I cannot agree with his theory of gradual cooling: inspite of what I have seen and felt, I believe, and always