From Alexandria the journey was performed by the _Ceylon_, comfortably, and without adventure. At Malta we learned that the American Congress had expressed approval of the Southern minister being captured on board a British steamer;[242] that troops were being prepared in England for immediate embarkation; that war appeared imminent and inevitable. On reaching Gibraltar we found in the bay the Mediterranean fleet, in which it was said all necessary preparations were being made for active service. Our entrance to the Bay of Biscay was duly announced by the ship’s band with the well-known air so called. Warlike news greeted us on arrival at Southampton. Then followed, in quick succession, disembarkation, personal report at Headquarters, London, appointment to Devonport, and happy reunion to wife and children there.
Paris--Versailles--Champ de Mars--An incident--Rouen--Proceed to India--Calcutta--A _mélange_ of subjects--Continued--A painful incident--State trial--Sea transport--General events--43rd Regiment--More “news”--Scenes revisited--A rough journey--Hill coolies--Darjeeling--Sinchal--Nunsook--Rungeet--Pilgrims--Locusts-- A happy event--Death of Lord Elgin--Agricultural Exhibition-- Sittana--Spring sickness--Sanitary Commission formed--General news--Indigo--Cyclone--History of “Masterly inactivity.”
Administrative duties in the Western Military District of England, of which Devonport was, and still is, the Headquarters, were peaceful, and so contrasted with events during the past few years, as already recorded. In due time--the first for several years--I applied for and obtained the usual two months’ leave accorded annually to officers serving at home. With my wife I proceeded to Paris, where time passed agreeably and profitably in visiting places of historical, artistic, and scientific interest, and in exploring public buildings and monuments with which that very beautiful city abounds.
On that occasion the French capital was _en fête_, the King of Holland being on a visit to Napoleon the Third; military displays on a grand scale the order of the day. One such display being arranged to take place at Versailles, we joined the crowds proceeding thither from St. Lazare. Having visited the château and its surroundings, we had the opportunity, while in the latter, of meeting the young Prince Imperial, then little more than seven years old, as he rode a small pony, accompanied and guarded by a group of attendants. Within the château we visited the various salons open to the public, among them the Salon de la Guerre and Grande Galerie des Glaces, little thinking as we did so that they were to be revisited under very different circumstances.