We got back this morning at 10 o'clock. The journey was very comfortable--there is nothing like those French "lits-salons." Our departure from Cologne was rather amusing. The Chef de Gare summoned us at the last moment--all the passengers had taken their places, the doors were shut, officials careering up and down the platform, and _yet_ the train didn't start. Various heads were put out of the windows, and one or two irate gentlemen inquired what they were waiting for, and why didn't we start. Then we appeared strolling leisurely down the platform, with a small suite of gentlemen, officers, etc. The adieux were again a little long, and really one man was bursting with rage, and not at all mollified when he heard it was an Ambassador returning to France after the Coronation; "he supposed Ambassadors could be as punctual as anybody else, and when an express started at 10.30, it was 10.30 for everybody." We were very pleased to find Hubert and the coupe waiting for us at the Gare de l'Est, and Baby and Nounou in the street at the door of the porte cochere. Well, the Moscow Coronation is over--I wonder what the next turn of the wheel will bring us. PART II TEN YEARS IN ENGLAND _To G. K. S._ #Boulogne-sur-Mer#, August, 1883. Here we are after all settled for a month at the sea. I really needed the change and the sea-air after the fatigues of Moscow, and I was glad to get out of my own house, which is still crowded with boxes and huge cases labelled _Waddington Couronnement_, which now will not be unpacked, but go direct to London, as all the Court dresses, gala liveries, harness, etc., will be needed there. We decided just at the last moment to come here, and consequently couldn't get a house near the big hotels in the real "quartier des baigneurs," so we have taken one quite the other end of the town near all the fishing boats. They are a never-failing attraction. We love to see them go out, and, above all, come in, when all the women, bare-legged, and with flat baskets on their backs, go out to meet them and bring in the fish. W. wanted us to come here, as he was in London and thought he would often get over from Saturday to Monday.