I THE ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND LONDON, _June 18, 1873_. “Would you like to go over to Belgium and help bring the Shah to England?” I said I was willing. “Very well, then; here is an order from the Admiralty which will admit you on board Her Majesty’s ship _Lively_, now lying at Ostend, and you can return in her day after to-morrow.” That was all. That was the end of it. Without stopping to think, I had in a manner taken upon myself to bring the Shah of Persia to England. I could not otherwise regard the conversation I had just held with the London representative of the New York _Herald_. The amount of discomfort I endured for the next two or three hours cannot be set down in words. I could not eat, sleep, talk, smoke with any satisfaction. The more I thought the thing over the more oppressed I felt. What was the Shah to me, that I should go to all this worry and trouble on his account? Where was there the least occasion for taking upon myself such a responsibility? If I got him over all right, well. But if I lost him? if he died on my hands? if he got drowned? It was depressing, any way I looked at it. In the end I said to myself, “If I get this Shah over here safe and sound I never will take charge of another one.” And yet, at the same time I kept thinking: “This country has treated me well, stranger as I am, and this foreigner is the country’s guest--that is enough, I will help him out; I will fetch him over; I will land him in London, and say to the British people, ‘Here is your Shah; give me a receipt.’” I felt easy in my mind now, and was about to go to bed, but something occurred to me. I took a cab and drove downtown and routed out that _Herald_ representative. “Where is Belgium?” said I. “Where is Belgium? I never heard such a question!” “That doesn’t make any difference to me. If I have got to fetch this Shah I don’t wish to go to the wrong place. Where is Belgium? Is it a shilling fare in a cab?” He explained that it was in foreign parts--the first place I have heard of lately which a body could not go to in a cab for a shilling. I said I could not go alone, because I could not speak foreign languages well, could not get up in time for the early train without help, and could not find my way. I said it was enough to have the Shah on my hands; I did not wish to have everything piled on me. Mr. Blank was then ordered to go with me. I do like to have somebody along to talk to when I go abroad.