I am not writing a history of Arabi, and need not go into the details of the September demonstration, when the soldiers who had learnt their way to the Palace to release the colonels appeared there again with a demand for a Constitution, which was promised them. In December the Khedive made him Under-Secretary of War, whether with the idea of strengthening the Government, or that Arabi’s popularity would be lessened by his acceptance of office, I cannot tell. In the Government of Mahmoud Samy, which came into office on the 3rd of February, he became Minister of War. His popularity was then at its height in Cairo. Many European officials paying the necessary formal visits to the new Ministers met him for the first time, and one and all came away with a more favourable impression of him than they had before. Men who a month earlier had spoken of him as beneath contempt now boasted of a few civil words from him. At the American public dinner, at which he was a guest and made a short speech in Arabic, those who were present, unable to judge of his eloquence, could talk of nothing but the charm of his smile. It was just at this time that the Sacred Carpet was brought back from Mecca. It is a time of great rejoicing among the people, and all Cairo went out to meet it. When Arabi appeared in the procession the enthusiasm of the people knew no bounds. They threw themselves upon him, kissed his hands, his knees, his feet, tore his gloves into fragments to keep in memory of him. The soldiers tried in vain to beat them back, but he stopped them, and, lifting his hand, said quietly, ‘Go back, my children,’ and in an instant was obeyed. The Khedive’s wife was looking on from a window ill-pleased. ‘See,’ she said, ‘how this man is stealing the hearts of the people.’ Her own husband had passed, receiving but little notice, just before. I had already seen and spoken with Arabi, but it was not until the end of February that I went, with Lady Anne Blunt, to see his wife. They had moved some little time before to a new house, large and dilapidated looking, and which Arabi was represented as having fitted up in a luxurious style; in fact, at that time the crime most frequently alleged against him was that he had bought carpets to the amount of £120. I must confess that there were some pieces of new and not beautiful European carpets in the chief rooms, but I must add that if Arabi paid £120 for them he made a very bad bargain. I do not know how he has spent his official salary, but I have heard very lately, from one who has taken the trouble to investigate the truth of the stories of his avarice, that he has the same small amount of money to his credit now that he had before he was either Pasha or Minister, and that the foundation of the story of his having become a large landed proprietor is his having become trustee for the orphan child of an old friend of his who had been kind to him.