"_Oct. 12th._--Sir William has borne the journey pretty well, but knowing how anxious Emma must be about him, I determined to accept the Queen's very pressing invitation to luncheon at the Palace, and immediately afterwards to excuse myself and go down to the dockyard. It has been my invariable custom, when ships under my command have been refitting, to go down and inspect them personally, although I have never found the ships' officers less careful than myself, or less capable of judging efficiency. "Indeed, I attribute the successes, with which the Lord has been pleased to grace my battles, to the efficiency of of my officers and men, coupled with my unalterable principle to seek my enemy as fast and as near as ever I can get to him. "I did not lunch at the Queen's table after all, for I found that the very early lunch resolved itself into light refreshment directly we arrived, and the usual interminable meal an hour or two afterwards, which is Her Majesty's foundation for the siesta. So I determined to go off to the dockyard on a biscuit and a glass of _lachrime Christi_, which was served to us as a fillip. "But one of the Queen's ladies, a certain Princess of Favara, to whom I once had the honour of doing a small service in a delicate matter, insisting that it was the height of imprudence for a man but lately recovered from the fever to spend a long day in the sun on no better preparation, with her own hands brought me the breast of a fowl and some champagne, which she obtained from one of the servants. She is a lady of marked beauty, and has, if I mistake not, a feeling for my scapegrace Will. Her deference to me, as an elderly man and the commander of the good Allies of her Sovereign, is very graceful, and does her good taste great credit; for it is not necessary for a maid of honour, especially of her high birth, to take any notice of one whom only the accident of politics has introduced at the Court. "_Oct. 12th. At night._--Matters at the dockyard on the whole satisfactory, though for war-ships to take three weeks to re-fit--oh Lord! But then their appliances are miserable, and there are hardly any stores to speak of, and in this country nothing is ever ready or well done, except a _bal masqué_.