retted their refusal
to stay here in preference for the other and more accessible residence.
Tchamlidja, not far away, the summer residence of Mustapha Fazil Pasha,
brother of the Viceroy of Egypt, was then visited and a "luncheon"
served which proved to be almost wanton in its luxury--the choicest
fruits that Paris could produce and the finest wines of the east or the
west being served in profusion. Afterwards, the Princess and Mrs. Grey
visited the Harem, while the men smoked exquisite cigars and drank the
finest obtainable coffee.

The following day included a trip across the Bosphorus in the Sultan's
yacht and a state ball at the British Embassy in the evening, which was,
for a short time, attended by the Padishah himself. The Royal party did
not retire from the gathering until daylight. During the next three days
one function continued to follow another. A visit to the British
Memorial Church; attendance with the Sultan at a great special
performance in the Theatre through densely-crowded streets; a visit to a
cricket match in the suburbs; attendance at a state banquet given by the
British Ambassador; inspection by the Prince of a Turkish
ironclad--Hobart Pasha's flagship; a dinner at the country home of the
Grand Vizier. The day of departure fixed upon was April 10th, and, after
a stately breakfast with the Sultan at Dolmabakshi, and farewells
exchanged amidst all possible pomp and Oriental pageantry, the _Ariadne_
was boarded and slowly steamed away from the Moslem capital to the sound
of cheers and thundering guns from fleet and fort. They were soon in
the gloomy waters of the Black Sea on the way to the Czar's dominions.

Arrangements had been under discussion for some time in connection with
this visit to the Crimea and Sir Andrew Buchanan's opportune arrival
had, no doubt, a good deal to do with the matter. On April 12th
Sebastopol was sighted, crowned with its ruined bastions and replete to
the Royal tourists with memories of the Redan, the Malakoff, and the
Mamelon. Neither flags nor men were visible, however, upon the ramparts
as the yacht came to its moorings although elsewhere Russian soldiers
could be occasionally seen. Presently, General de Kotzebue, Governor of
New Russia and Bessarabia, came on board with his suite--a decorated and
energetic survivor of the great siege at which he had been Chief of
Staff to Prince Gortschakoff. After the four days programme for the
Crimea had been settled the Prince