82 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

Before I pass on, let me recall one incident connected with the opening of the Suez Canal. The last time I saw the Empress Eugenie during her visit to Egypt was on the night of the State ball given in her honour at Ismailia. There were present at this festival any number of Royalties, but the Empress of the French was, by common consent, the mistress of the revels. It was not only her position as a woman, her queen-like presence, her singular beauty, still hardly touched by the lapse of years, which gave her practical, if not nominal, precedence even in the presence of the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. It was as the representative of France and of the Napoleonic dynasty that every one, from the Khedive downwards, was anxious to pay her the respect due to her connection with the great enterprise then just completed. I can see her still in my mind's eye as covered with diamonds she moved, like a goddess, amidst the crowds who stood up to give her passage to the dais on which, surrounded by crowned heads and the heirs to Royal thrones, she took her seat as, if I may use the phrase, the patroness of. the ball. I can still hear the strains of Partant pour la Syrie which the bands played in her honour as she embarked on the Imperial yacht, the Aigle, on leaving the ball, and the salutes by which her departure was proclaimed. The ball took place in November, 1869.

I did not see the Empress again till a few months later. It so chanced that one hot, dull afternoon in