The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism Volume I Part 8

The great catacombs at Citta Vecchia, Malta, were constructed by the natives as places of refuge from the Turks. They consist of whole streets, with houses and sleeping-places. They were later used for tombs. There are other remains on the island of much greater antiquity, _Hagiar Chem_ (the stones of veneration) date from Phnician days. These include a temple resembling Stonehenge, on a smaller scale, where there are seven statuettes with a grotesque rotundity of outline, the seven Phnician _Cabiri_ (deities; "great and powerful ones"). There are also seven divisions to the temple, which is mentioned by Herodotus and other ancient writers.

To come back to our own time. In 1808, the following remarkable event occurred at Malta. One Froberg had raised a levy of Greeks for the British Government, by telling the individual members that they should all be corporals, generals, or what not. It was to be all officers, like some other regiments of which we have heard. The men soon found out the deceit, but drilled admirably until the brutality of the adjutant caused them to mutiny. Malta was at the time thinly garrisoned, and their particular fort had only one small detachment of troops and thirty artillerymen. The mutineers made the officer of artillery point his guns on the town. He, however, managed that the shots should fall harmlessly. Another officer escaped up a chimney, and the Greeks coming into the same house, nearly suffocated him by lighting a large fire below. Troops arrived; the mutineers were secured, and a court-martial condemned thirty, half of whom were to be hanged, and the rest shot. Only five could be hanged at a time: the first five were therefore suspended by the five who came next, and so on. Of the men who were to be shot one ran away, and got over a parapet, where he was afterwards shot: another is thought to have escaped.

Colonel Shaw tells the story of a soldier of the Sicilian regiment who had frequently deserted. He was condemned to be shot. A priest who visited him in prison left behind him-purposely, there can be little doubt-his iron crucifix. The soldier used it to sc.r.a.pe away the mortar, and moved stone after stone, until he got into an adjoining cell, where he found himself no better off, as it was locked. The same process was repeated, until he at last reached a cell of which the door was open, entered the pa.s.sage and climbed a wall, beneath which a sentry was posted. Fortunately for the prisoner, a regular Maltese shower was pouring down, and the guard remained in his box. The fugitive next reached a high gate, where it seemed he must be foiled. Not at all! He went back, got his blanket, cut it into strips, made a rope, and by its means climbed the gate, dropped into a fosse, from which he reached and swam across the harbour. He lived concealed for some time among the natives, but venturing one day into the town, was recognised and captured. The governor considered that after all this he deserved his life, and changed his sentence to transportation.

Before leaving Malta, which, with its docks, navy-yard, and splendid harbours, fortifications, batteries, and magazines, is such an important naval and military station, we may briefly mention the revenue derived, and expenditure incurred by the Government in connection with it, as both are considerable. The revenue derived from imposts of the usual nature, harbour dues, &c., is about 175,000. The military expenditure is about 366,000, which includes the expenses connected with the detachments of artillery, and the Royal Maltese Fencibles, a native regiment of 600 to 700 men. The expenses of the Royal Navy would, of course, be incurred somewhere, if not in Malta, and have therefore nothing to do with the matter.

Our next points of destination are Alexandria and Suez, both intimately identified with British interests. On our way we shall be pa.s.sing through or near the same waters as did St. Paul when in the custody of the centurion Julius, "one of Augustus' band." It was in "a s.h.i.+p of Alexandria" that he was a pa.s.senger on that disastrous voyage. At Fair Havens, Crete (or Candia), we know that the Apostle admonished them to stay, for "sailing was now dangerous," but his advice was disregarded, and "when the south wind blew softly" the master and owner of the vessel feared nothing, but

"The flattering wind that late with promis'd aid, From Candia's Bay th' unwilling s.h.i.+p betray'd, No longer fawns beneath the fair disguise,"

and "not long after, there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Euroclydon," before which the s.h.i.+p drave under bare poles. We know that she had to be undergirded; cables being pa.s.sed under her hull to keep her from parting; and lightened, by throwing the freight overboard. For fourteen days the s.h.i.+p was driven hither and thither, till at length she was wrecked off Melita. Sudden gales, whirlwinds, and typhoons are not uncommon in the Mediterranean; albeit soft winds and calm seas alternate with them.

On the 22nd May, 1798, Nelson, while in the Gulf of Genoa, was a.s.sailed by a sudden storm, which carried away all the _Vanguard's_ topmasts, washed one man overboard, killed an unfortunate middy and a seaman on board, and wounded others. This s.h.i.+p, which acted her name at the Nile only two months afterwards, rolled and laboured so dreadfully, and was in such distress, that Nelson himself declared, "The meanest frigate out of France would have been an unwelcome guest!" An officer relates that in the middle of the Gulf of Lyons, Lord Collingwood's vessel, the _Ocean_, a roomy 98-gun s.h.i.+p, was struck by a sea in the middle of a gale, that threw her on her beam-ends, so much so that the men on the _Royal Sovereign_ called out, "The admiral's gone down!" She righted again, however, but was terribly disabled. Lord Collingwood said afterwards that the heavy guns were suspended almost _vertically_, and that "he thought the topsides were actually parting from the lower frame of the s.h.i.+p." Admiral Smyth, in his important physical, hydrographical, and nautical work on the Mediterranean, relates that in 1812, when on the _Rodney_, a new 74-gun s.h.i.+p, she was so torn by the united violence of wind and wave, that the admiral had to send her to England, although sadly in need of s.h.i.+ps. He adds, however, that n.o.ble as was her appearance on the waters, "she was one of that hastily-built batch of men-of-war sarcastically termed the _Forty Thieves_!"

Many are the varieties of winds accompanied by special characteristics met in the Mediterranean, and, indeed, sudden squalls are common enough in all usually calm waters. The writer well remembers such an incident in the beautiful Bay of San Francisco, California. He had, with friends, started in the morning from the gay city of "Frisco" on a deep-sea fis.h.i.+ng excursion. The vessel was what is technically known as a "plunger," a strongly-built two-masted boat, with deck and cabins, used in the bay and coast trade of the North Pacific, or for fis.h.i.+ng purposes. When the party, consisting of five ladies, four gentlemen, the master and two men, started in the morning, there was scarcely a breath of wind or a ripple on the water, and oars as large as those used on a barge were employed to propel the vessel.

"The sea was bright, and the bark rode well,"

and at length the desired haven, a sheltered nook, with fine cliffs, seaweed-covered rocks, and deep, clear water, was reached, and a dozen strong lines, with heavy sinkers, put out. The sea was bountiful: in a couple of hours enough fish were caught to furnish a capital lunch for all. A camp was formed on the beach, a large fire of driftwood lighted, and sundry hampers unpacked, from which the necks of bottles had protruded suspiciously. It was an _al fresco_ picnic by the seaside. The sky was blue, the weather was delightful, "and all went merry as a marriage bell."

Later, while some wandered to a distance and bathed and swam, others clambered over the hills, among the flowers and waving wild oats for which the country is celebrated. Then, as evening drew on, preparations were made for a return to the city, and "All aboard" was the signal, for the wind was freshening. All remained on deck, for there was an abundance of overcoats and rugs, and shortly the pa.s.sing schooners and yachts could hear the strains of minstrelsy from a not altogether incompetent choir, several of the ladies on board being musically inclined. The sea gives rise to thoughts of the sea. The reader may be sure that "The Bay of Biscay," "The Larboard Watch," "The Minute Gun," and "What are the Wild Waves saying?" came among a score of others. Meantime, the wind kept freshening, but all of the number being well accustomed to the sea, heeded it not. Suddenly, in the midst of one of the gayest songs, a squall struck the vessel, and as she was carrying all sail, put her nearly on her beam-ends. So violent was the shock, that most things movable on deck, including the pa.s.sengers, were thrown or slid to the lower side, many boxes and baskets going overboard. These would have been trifles, but alas, there is something sadder to relate. As one of the men was helping to take in sail, a great sea dashed over the vessel and threw him overboard, and for a few seconds only, his stalwart form was seen struggling in the waves. Ropes were thrown to, or rather towards him, an empty barrel and a coop pitched overboard, but it was hopeless-

"That cry is 'Help!' where no help can come, For the White Squall rides on the surging wave,"

and he disappeared in an "ocean grave," amid the mingled foam and driving spray. No more songs then; all gaiety was quenched, and many a tear-drop clouded eyes so bright before. The vessel, under one small sail only (the jib), drove on, and in half an hour broke out of obscurity and mist, and was off the wharfs and lights of San Francisco in calm water. The same distance had occupied over four hours in the morning.

In the Mediterranean every wind has its special name. There is the searching north wind, the _Grippe_ or _Mistral_, said to be one of the scourges of gay Provence-

"La Cour de Parlement, le Mistral et la Durance, Sont les trois fleaux de la Provence."

The north blast, a sudden wind, is called _Boras_, and hundreds of sailors have practically prayed, with the song,

"Cease, rude Boreas."

The north-east biting wind is the _Gregale_, while the south-east, often a violent wind, is the dreaded _Sirocco_, bad either on sea or sh.o.r.e. The last which need be mentioned here, is the stifling south-west wind, the _Siffante_. But now we have reached the Suez Ca.n.a.l.

[Ill.u.s.tration: M. LESSEPS.]

This gigantic work, so successfully completed by M. Lesseps, for ever solved the _possibility_ of a work which up to that time had been so emphatically declared to be an impossibility. In effect, he _is_ a conqueror. "_Impossible_," said the first Napoleon, "_n'est pas Francais_," and the motto is a good one for any man or any nation, although the author of the sentence found many things impossible, including that of which we speak. M. de Lesseps has done more for peace than ever the Disturber of Europe did with war.

When M. de Lesseps(87) commenced with, not the Ca.n.a.l, but the grand conception thereof, he had pursued twenty-nine years of first-cla.s.s diplomatic service: it would have been an honourable career for most people. He gave it up from punctilios of honour; lost, at least possibly, the opportunity of great political power. He was required to endorse that which he could not possibly endorse. Lesseps had lost his chance, said many. Let us see. The man who has conquered the usually unconquerable English prejudice would certainly surmount most troubles! He has _only_ carried out the ideas of Sesostris, Alexander, Caesar, Amrou, the Arabian conqueror, Napoleon the Great, and Mehemet Ali. These are simply matters of history. But history, in this case, has only repeated itself in the failures, not in the successes. Lesseps has made the success; _they_ were the failures! Let us review history, amid which you may possibly find many truths. The truth alone, as far as it may be reached, appears in this work. The Peace Society ought to endorse Lesseps. As it stands, the Peace party-well-intentioned people-ought to raise a statue to the man who has made it almost impossible for England to be involved in war, so far as the great East is concerned, for many a century to come.

After all, who is the conqueror-he who kills, or he who saves, thousands?

To prove our points, it will not be necessary to recite the full history of the grandest engineering work of this century-a century replete with proud engineering works. Here it can only be given in the barest outline.

Every intelligent child on looking at the map would ask why the natural route to India was not by the Isthmus of Suez, and why a ca.n.a.l was not made. His schoolmaster answered, in days gone by, that there was a difference in the levels of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. That question has been answered successfully, and the difference has not ruined the Ca.n.a.l. Others said that it was impossible to dig a ca.n.a.l through the desert. It has been done! Lord Palmerston, the most serious opponent in England that Lesseps had,(88) thought that France, our best ally to-day, would have too much influence in Egypt. Events, thanks to Lord Beaconsfield's astute policy, by purchasing the Khedive's interest, have given England the largest share among the shareholders of all nations.

It would not be interesting to follow all the troubles that Lesseps successfully combated. The idea had more than once occurred to him, when in 1852 he applied to Constantinople. The answer was that it in no way concerned the Porte. Lesseps returned to his farm at Berry, and not unlikely constructed miniature Suez Ca.n.a.ls for irrigation, thought of camels while he improved the breed of cattle, and built houses, but not on the sand of the desert. Indeed, it was while on the roof of one of his houses, then in course of construction, that the news came to him of the then Pacha of Egypt's death (Mehemet Ali). They had once been on familiar terms. Mehemet Ali was a terribly severe man, and seeing that his son Sad Pacha, a son he loved, was growing fat, he had sent him to climb the masts of s.h.i.+ps for two hours a day, to row, and walk round the walls of the city. Poor little fat boy! he used to steal round to Lesseps' rooms, and surrept.i.tiously obtain meals from the servants. Those surrept.i.tious dinners did not greatly hurt the interests of the Ca.n.a.l, as we shall see.

Mehemet Ali had been a moderate tyrant-to speak advisedly. His son-in-law, Defderdar, known popularly as the "Scourge of G.o.d," was his acting vicegerent. The brute once had his groom shod like a horse for having badly shod his charger. A woman of the country one day came before him, complaining of a soldier who had bought milk of her, and had refused to pay for it. "Art thou sure of it?" asked the tyrant. "Take care! they shall tear open thy stomach if no milk is found in that of the soldier."

They opened the stomach of the soldier. Milk was found in it. The poor woman was saved. But, although his successor was not everything that could be wished, he had a good heart, and was not "the terrible Turk."

In 1854, Lesseps met Sad Pacha in his tent on a plain between Alexandria and Lake Mareotis, a swamp in the desert. His Highness was in good humour, and understood Lesseps perfectly. A fine Arabian horse had been presented to him by Sad Pacha a few days previously. After examining the plans and investigating the subject, the ruler of Egypt said, "I accept your plan.

We will talk about the means of its execution during the rest of the journey. Consider the matter settled. You may rely on me." He sent immediately for his generals, and made them sit down, repeating the previous conversation, and inviting them to give their opinion of the proposals of his _friend_. The impromptu counsellors were better able to p.r.o.nounce on equestrian evolutions than on a vast enterprise. But Lesseps, a good horseman, had just before cleared a wall with his charger, and they, seeing how he stood with the Viceroy, gave their a.s.sent by raising their hands to their foreheads. The dinner-tray then appeared, and with one accord all plunged their spoons into the same bowl, which contained some first-cla.s.s soup. Lesseps considered it, very naturally, as the most important negotiation he had ever made.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF SUEZ Ca.n.a.l.]

Results speak for themselves. In 1854, there _was not a fly in that hideous desert_. Water, sheep, fowls, and provisions of all kinds had to be carried by the explorers. When at night they opened the coops of fowls, and let the sheep run loose, they did it with confidence. They were sure that next morning, in that desolate place, the animals dare not desert the party. "When," says Lesseps, "we struck our camp of a morning, if at the moment of departure a hen had lurked behind, pecking at the foot of a tamarisk shrub, quickly she would jump up on the back of a camel, to regain her cage." That desert is now peopled. There are three important towns. Port Sad had not existed before: there is now what would be called a "city," in America, on a much smaller basis of truth: it has 12,000 people. Suez, with 15,000 people, was not much more than a village previously. Ismalia, half-way on the route, has 5,000 or 6,000 of population. There are other towns or villages.

A ca.n.a.l actually effecting a junction between the two seas _via_ the Nile was made in the period of the Egyptian dynasties. It doubtless fulfilled its purpose for the pa.s.sage of galleys and smaller vessels; history hardly tells us when it was rendered useless. Napoleon the First knew the importance of the undertaking, and appointed a commission of engineers to report on it. M. Lepere presented him a report on its feasibility, and Napoleon observed on it, "It is a grand work; and though I cannot execute it now, the day may come when the Turkish Government will glory in accomplis.h.i.+ng it." Other schemes, including those of eminent Turkish engineers, had been proposed. It remained to be accomplished in this century. The advantages gained by its construction can hardly be enumerated here. Suffice it to say that a vessel going by the Cape of Good Hope from London to Bombay travels nearly 6,000 miles over the ocean; by the Suez Ca.n.a.l the distance is 3,100, barely more than half the distance.

To tell the history of the financial troubles which obstructed the scheme would be tedious to the reader. At last there was an International Commission appointed, which cost the Viceroy of Egypt 12,000, and yet no single member took a farthing for his services. The names are sufficient to prove with what care it had been selected. On the part of England, Messrs. Rendel and MacClean, both eminent engineers, with, for a sufficiently good reason, Commander Hewet of the East India Company's service, who for twenty-seven years had been making surveys in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. France gave two of her greatest engineers, Messrs.

Renaud and Liessou: Austria, one of _the_ greatest practical engineers in the world, M. de Negrelli; Italy, M. Paleocapa; Germany, the distinguished Privy Councillor Lentze; Holland, the Chevalier Conrad; Spain, M. de Montesino. They reported entirely in favour of the route. A second International Congress followed. The Viceroy behaved so magnificently to the scientific gentlemen of all nations who composed the commission, that M. de Lesseps thanked him publicly for having received them almost as crowned heads. The Viceroy answered gracefully, "Are they not the crowned heads of science?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF THE SUEZ Ca.n.a.l.]

At last the financial and political difficulties were overcome. In 1858, an office was opened in Paris, into which money flowed freely. Lesseps tells good-naturedly some little episodes which occurred. An old bald-headed priest entered, doubtless a man who had been formerly a soldier. "Oh! those English," said he, "I am glad to be able to be revenged on them by taking shares in the Suez Ca.n.a.l." Another said, "I wish to subscribe for 'Le Chemin de Fer de l'Ile de Suede'" (The Island of Sweden Railway!) It was remarked to him that the scheme did not include a railway, and that Sweden is not an island. "That's all the same to me," he replied, "provided it be against the English, I subscribe." Lord Palmerston, whose shade must feel uneasy in the neighbourhood of the Ca.n.a.l, could not have been more prejudiced. At Gren.o.ble, a whole regiment of engineers-naturally men of intelligence and technical knowledge, clubbed together for shares. The matter was not settled by even the free inflow of money. The Viceroy had been so much annoyed by the opposition shown to the scheme, that it took a good deal of tact on the part of its promoter to make things run smoothly. For the first four years, Lesseps, in making the necessary international and financial arrangements, travelled 30,000 miles per annum.

At length the scheme emerged from fog to fact. The Viceroy had promised 20,000 Egyptian labourers, but in 1861 he begged to be let out of his engagement. He had to pay handsomely for the privilege. Although the men were paid higher than they had ever been before, their labour was cheap: it cost double or treble the amount to employ foreigners.

The Ca.n.a.l, in its course of a shade over 100 miles, pa.s.ses through several salt marshes, "Les Pet.i.ts Ba.s.sins des Lacs Amers," in one of which a deposit of salt was found, seven miles long by five miles wide. It also pa.s.ses through an extensive piece of water, Lake Menzaleh.

At Lake Menzaleh the banks are very slightly above the level of the Ca.n.a.l, and from the deck of a big steamer there is an unbounded view over a wide expanse of lake and mora.s.s studded with islets, and at times gay and brilliant with innumerable flocks of rosy pelicans, scarlet flamingoes, and snow-white spoonbills, geese, ducks, and other birds. The pelicans may be caught bodily from a boat, so clumsy are they in the water, without the expenditure of powder and shot. Indeed, the sportsman might do worse than visit the Ca.n.a.l, where, it is almost needless to state, the shooting is open to all. A traveller, who has recently pa.s.sed through the Ca.n.a.l _en route_ to India, writes that there are alligators also to be seen. The whole of the channel through Lake Menzaleh was almost entirely excavated with dredges. When it was necessary to remove some surface soil before there was water enough for the dredges to float, it was done by the natives of Lake Menzaleh, a hardy and peculiar race, quite at home in digging ca.n.a.ls or building embankments. The following account shows their mode of proceeding:-"They place themselves in files across the channel.

The men in the middle of the file have their feet and the lower part of their legs in the water. These men lean forward and take in their arms large clods of earth, which they have previously dug up below the water with a species of pickaxe called a fa.s.s, somewhat resembling a short, big hoe. The clods are pa.s.sed from man to man to the bank, where other men stand with their backs turned, and their arms crossed behind them, so as to make a sort of primitive hod. As soon as each of these has had enough clods piled on his back, he walks off, bent almost double, to the further side of the bank, and there opening his arms, lets his load fall through to the ground. It is unnecessary to add that this original _metier_ requires the absence of all clothing."(89)

Into the channel thus dug the dredges were floated. One of the machines employed deserves special mention. The _long couloir_ (duct) was an iron spout 230 feet long, five and a half wide, and two deep, by means of which a dredger working in the centre of the channel could discharge its contents beyond the bank, a.s.sisted by the water which was pumped into it.

The work done by these long-spouted dredges has amounted to as much as 120,000 cubic yards a-piece of soil in a month. By all kinds of ingenious appliances invented for the special needs of the occasion, as much as 2,763,000 cubic yards of excavation were accomplished in a month. M. de Lesseps tells us that "were it placed in the Place Vendome, it would fill the whole square, and rise five times higher than the surrounding houses."

It would cover the entire length and breadth of the Champs Elysees, and reach to the top of the trees on either side.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SUEZ Ca.n.a.l: DREDGES AT WORK.]

Port Sad, which owes its very existence to the Ca.n.a.l, is to-day a port of considerable importance, where some of the finest steams.h.i.+ps in the world stop. All the through steamers between Europe and the East-our own grand "P. & O." (Peninsular and Oriental) line, the splendid French "Messageries," the Austrian Lloyd's, and dozens of excellent lines, all make a stay here of eight or ten hours. This is long enough for most travellers, as, sooth to say, the very land on which it is built had to be "made," in other words, it was a tract of swampy desert. It has respectable streets and squares, docks, quays, churches, mosques, and hotels. The outer port is formed by two enormous breakwaters, one of which runs straight out to sea for a distance of 2,726 yards. They have lighthouses upon them, using electricity as a means of illumination.

Messrs. Borel and Lavalley were the princ.i.p.al contractors for the work.

The ingenious machinery used cost nearly _two and a half million pounds_ (actually 2,400,000), and the _monthly_ consumption of coal cost the Company 40,000.

The distance from Port Sad to Suez is 100 miles. The width of the Ca.n.a.l, where the banks are low, is about 328 feet, and in deep cuttings 190 feet.

The deep channel is marked with buoys. The mole at the Port Sad (Mediterranean) end of the Ca.n.a.l stretches out into the sea for over half a mile, near the Damietta branch of the Nile. This helps to form an artificial harbour, and checks the mud deposits which might otherwise choke the entrance. It cost as much as half a million. In the Ca.n.a.l there are recesses-shall we call them sidings, as on a railway?-where vessels can enter and allow others to pa.s.s.

The scenery, we must confess, is generally monotonous. At Ismalia, however, a town has arisen where there are charming gardens. We are told that "it seems only necessary to pour the waters of the Nile on the desert to produce a soil which will grow anything to perfection." Here the Viceroy built a temporary palace, and M. de Lesseps himself has a _chalet_. At Suez itself the scenery is charming. From the height, on which is placed another of the Khedive's residences, there is a magnificent panorama in view. In the foreground is the town, harbour, roadstead, and mouth of the Ca.n.a.l. To the right are the mountain heights-Gebel Attakah-which hem in the Red Sea. To the left are the rosy peaks of Mount Sinai, so familiar to all Biblical students as the spot where the great Jewish Law was given by G.o.d to Moses; and between the two, the deep, deep blue of the Gulf. Near Suez are the so-called "Wells of Moses," natural springs of rather brackish water, surrounded by tamarisks and date-palms, which help to form an oasis-a pic-nic ground-in the desert. Dean Stanley has termed the spot "the Richmond of Suez."

Before leaving the Ca.n.a.l on our outward voyage, it will not be out of place to note the inauguration _fete_, which must have been to M. de Lesseps the proudest day of a useful life. Two weeks before that event, the engineers were for the moment baffled by a temporary obstruction-a ma.s.s of solid rock in the channel. "Go," said the unconquerable projector, "and get powder at Cairo-powder in quant.i.ties; and then, if we can't blow up the rock, we'll blow up ourselves." That rock was very soon in fragments! The spirit and _bonhomie_ of Lesseps made everything easy, and the greatest difficulties surmountable. "From the beginning of the work,"

says he, "there was not a tent-keeper who did not consider himself an agent of civilisation." This, no doubt, was the great secret of his grand success.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OPENING OF THE SUEZ Ca.n.a.l-PROCESSION OF s.h.i.+PS.]

The great day arrived. On the 16th of November, 1868, there were 160 vessels ready to pa.s.s the Ca.n.a.l. At the last moment that evening it was announced that an Egyptian frigate had run on one of the banks of the Ca.n.a.l, and was hopelessly stuck there, obstructing the pa.s.sage. She could not be towed off, and the united efforts of several hundred men on the bank could not at first move her. The Viceroy even proposed to blow her up. It was only five minutes before arriving at the site of the accident that an Egyptian admiral signalled to Lesseps from a little steam-launch that the Ca.n.a.l was free. A procession of 130 vessels was formed, the steam yacht _L'Aigle_, _en avant_, carrying on board the Empress of the French, the Emperor of Austria, and the Viceroy. This n.o.ble-hearted Empress, who has been so long exiled in a country she has learned to love, told Lesseps at Ismalia that during the whole journey she had felt "as though a circle of fire were round her head," fearing that some disaster might mar the day's proceedings. Her pent-up feelings gave way at last; and when success was a.s.sured, she retired to her cabin, where sobs were heard by her devoted friends-sobs which did great honour to her true and patriotic heart.