Went down to Windsor. At Paddington found Lady Caroline Barrington, availing myself of the carriage sent for her when we reached Windsor. Dined, a household dinner, Lady Caroline Barrington and Miss Macdonald in waiting with Biddulph and Cowell. After dinner, was summoned into the presence of Her Majesty in the corridor, the Queen still wearing the widow’s cap. However, I was received with one of Her Majesty’s pleasantest smiles, and after some twelve minutes’ conversation, chiefly about the Duke of Edinburgh and Count Gleichen, I was graciously dismissed. Cowell saw me into my train. [Sidenote: Feb. 26.] Risk, lately married, was likewise ordered a passage _viâ_ Marseilles. My boy stated when he saw me off in the train at Bishopstoke that “Dadda would get out at the China station!” Found French steam packet at Dover; rail to Paris and Marseilles, where we arrived at 12.30 P.M. Took possession of the cabin allotted me on board the mail steamer, opening into the saloon! CHAPTER LXXXV BOUND FOR CHINA [Sidenote: 1867. Malta, Mar. 2.] It was half-past ten o’clock on the night of March 2nd when we arrived at Malta. Clarence Paget came off; we landed together. Rem Macdonald kept with me, but all the shops were closed, and the Carnival commenced. Left a letter at Admiralty House and re-embarked. We were off before daylight, and arrived at Alexandria on the 7th. Here, met my old friend James Willoughby, who had been appointed Joint Superintendent, with a military man, to attend the transit through Egypt of our troops to India. It was about four when we reached Cairo. Here we were joined by Harry Stephenson, who had come _viâ_ Southampton. We were informed that we were not to go on to Suez until the following day. A rush was made to secure beds. The best had been already bespoken by the Southampton passengers. However, Stephenson had thought of us and secured rooms. The transit through Egypt is managed by the Government. Most of the officials are French and wear the fez and Egyptian uniform, as well as religion, for the time, with equal ease. [Sidenote: Mar. 8.] We made another start at 10 A.M. and took a plentiful supply of oranges, which we found agreeable crossing the desert. At Suez I found another friend in Dunn the Captain of the P. and O. steamer _Surat_; we first became acquainted when he was in command of one of the hired transports at Balaklava. He kindly took me in his gig to visit the great dock and engineering works carried on by the French under M. de Lesseps. Time, money, and perseverance will, I believe, complete the great work of the Suez Canal. De Lesseps is sanguine at no distant period of being able to pass a ship of the line from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. No English capitalists have, however, invested a shilling in the affair, and the whole nation has come in for an amount of abuse, attributing our reluctance to share in the French glory to bad motives.