Je ne vous parle pas de la situation de nos deux pays en Orient: elle est pénible, et il me semble que le dernier numéro du Punch l'exprime avec une vérité parfaite.
Veuillez offrir mes hommages à Madame Reeve et me croire votre affectionné,
LOUIS-PHILIPPE D'ORLÉANS.
The Journal here notes:—
July.—The Egyptian Expedition was now resolved on. [Alexandria was bombarded on the 11th: the Army Reserves were called out on the 25th.] Lord Granville thought it would be finished before the end of August.
16th.—Crossed to Boulogne. Thence by Abbeville to Château d'Eu. Duc d'Audiffret, St. Marc Girardin, Duchesse de Montpensier. 21st, drive in the Great Park. Tréport. 24th, returned to London. 28th, to Foxholes: quiet life.
To Mr. E. Cheney
Foxholes, October 20th.—I am glad the article on Shelley [Footnote: 'Shelley and Mary,' Edinburgh Review, October 1882.] has interested you. The perusal of these private letters and correspondence has considerably altered and raised my estimate of Shelley as a man. As to his poetry, it produces on me exactly the effect of delicious music, which enchants the ear even when you can't understand it. But these papers, which Lady Shelley has had printed in order to secure their preservation, are a sealed book. I believe she never can show them again to anyone—at least not at present. The copy she lent me has been returned to her and I do not possess it. Nobody else does. It is, therefore, impossible to ask her for a copy. I undertook to compile an article—as I did for Lady Dorchester, on her father—omissis omittendis. But that is all. I think the history of Allegra is in great part new, and one of the difficulties in this matter is the connexion existing between these papers and the papers of Lord Byron, which are unpublished.
Are you going to stay in London? I hope so. I shall return to town on
November 6, and should be very glad to find you there.
And the Journal accordingly has:—