After dinner Queen Alexandra, attended by Mrs. Grey and accompanied by Mrs. Elliot and Madame Ignatieff, went to visit the Sultan’s mother and wife. The visit very much resembled that which had been paid in Cairo to La Grande Princesse; and the most amusing part of the evening was the sudden appearance of the Sultan’s son, aged ten, and daughter, aged nine, who both came marching in followed by slaves. Both were enormously over-dressed, the little girl, indeed, being hardly able to move under all her lace and finery. They sat themselves down in large arm-chairs, and the little Princess kept slipping down off hers, but a slave always helped her up again. The King and Queen, who adopted for the nonce the name of Mr. and Mrs. Williams, spent the whole morning of 5th April in the bazaars, attended by Mrs. Grey, and entirely escaped being recognised. Another Oriental precedent was broken on the 7th, when the Royal party went to the opera, and the Sultan joined the King and Queen and Mrs. Grey in the Royal box. This was the first time that the Sultan had been seen with ladies in his box. On the following day Queen Alexandra was delighted to have an opportunity of seeing the Sultan’s stables, containing about 200 horses of extraordinary beauty. It would be tedious to describe in detail the ceremonies and visits to places of interest which the Royal party paid. In this way the days were filled up until the 10th, when it was decided that the Queen should accompany the King in his proposed visit to the Crimea. After lunching with the Sultan, the Royal party again went on board the _Ariadne_ with the usual ceremonies, and started for the Crimea. They had a beautiful passage across the Black Sea, and arrived in the harbour of Sevastopol on 12th April. The great struggle with Russia was still fresh in every one’s memories, and they found not a single ship in the harbour, and all the forts and fortifications abandoned--indeed, the whole town on one side almost one mass of ruins. The _débris_ remained just as they were left in 1856, and the populace, which before the war amounted to 60,000, had been reduced to 5500. As soon as the _Ariadne_ had cast anchor a boat came off containing General Kotzebue, Governor-General of New Russia, and General Jukoffsky, Governor of Crim Tartary, who had come from Simferopol to meet King Edward. They were accompanied by Admiral Kisalinsky, the Commandant of Sevastopol, and other officials, together with the British Consul at Odessa. The Russian authorities offered every possible assistance to the King and Queen in order that they might see everything that could be seen.