served, after which the Queen returned to Baveno, which she left on the 23rd of April, arriving in Paris next day. Her return was clouded, as her setting out had been, by the shadow of death. On her arrival at Turin she received the painful intelligence of the death at Genoa of the Duke of Roxburghe, the husband of one of her valued friends. She left Paris on Friday, the 25th, and before her departure she gave away memorial tokens to several of the members of the Embassy. She arrived at Windsor on the 27th, where the German Empress came to spend some days with her in May. During this visit both Royal ladies became great-grandmothers, for the Queen’s first great-grandchild was born on the 12th of May. This was the first-born daughter of the Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen, the eldest daughter of the German Crown Prince and Princess. [Illustration: OSBORNE HOUSE, FROM THE GARDENS. (_From a Photograph by J. Valentine and Sons._)] CHAPTER XXIII. FALL OF LORD BEACONSFIELD. General Gloom--Fall of the Tay Bridge--Liberal Onslaught on the Government--The Mussulman Schoolmaster and the Anglican Missionary--The Queen’s Speech--The Irish Relief Bill--A Dying Parliament--Mr. Cross’s Water Bill--“Coming in on Beer and Going out on Water”--Sir Stafford Northcote’s Budget--Lord Beaconsfield’s Manifesto--The General Election--Defeat of the Tories--Incidents of the Struggle--Mr. Gladstone Prime Minister--The Fourth Party--Mr. Bradlaugh and the Oath--Mr. Gladstone and the Emperor of Austria--The Naval Demonstration--Grave Error in the Indian Budget--Affairs in Afghanistan--Disaster at Maiwand--Roberts’s March--The New Ameer--Revolt of the Boers--The Ministerial Programme--The Burials Bill--The Hares and Rabbits Bill--The Employers’ Liability Bill--Supplementary Budget--The Compensation for Disturbance Bill--Boycotting--Trial of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Dillon--The Queen’s Visit to Germany--The Queen Presents the Albert Medal to George Oatley of the Coastguard--Reviews at Windsor--The Queen’s Speech to the Ensigns--The Battle of the Standards--Royalty and Riflemen--Outrages in Ireland--“Endymion”--Death of George Eliot.