On 4th April the Royal party dined with the Sultan at the Palace of Dolma-Baghtche. The dinner was good, and well served in the European fashion, but it was remarkable for being the first time that the Sultan had ever sat down to dinner with ladies; and, indeed, it was the first time that any of his own Ministers, except the Grand Vizier, had ever been known to sit down in his presence. Half the party were Turks, and they looked so frightened and astonished that they acted as wet blankets to the rest of the company, which included Mr. Elliot, the British Ambassador, and Mrs. Elliot, and General Ignatieff, the Russian Ambassador, and his wife. The Sultan was in high good-humour, but spoke very little.
After dinner Queen Alexandra, attended by Mrs. Grey and accompanied by Mrs. Elliot and Madame Ignatieff, went to visit the Sultan’s mother and wife. The visit very much resembled that which had been paid in Cairo to La Grande Princesse; and the most amusing part of the evening was the sudden appearance of the Sultan’s son, aged ten, and daughter, aged nine, who both came marching in followed by slaves. Both were enormously over-dressed, the little girl, indeed, being hardly able to move under all her lace and finery. They sat themselves down in large arm-chairs, and the little Princess kept slipping down off hers, but a slave always helped her up again.
The King and Queen, who adopted for the nonce the name of Mr. and Mrs. Williams, spent the whole morning of 5th April in the bazaars, attended by Mrs. Grey, and entirely escaped being recognised. Another Oriental precedent was broken on the 7th, when the Royal party went to the opera, and the Sultan joined the King and Queen and Mrs. Grey in the Royal box. This was the first time that the Sultan had been seen with ladies in his box. On the following day Queen Alexandra was delighted to have an opportunity of seeing the Sultan’s stables, containing about 200 horses of extraordinary beauty.
It would be tedious to describe in detail the ceremonies and visits to places of interest which the Royal party paid. In this way the days were filled up until the 10th, when it was decided that the Queen should accompany the King in his proposed visit to the Crimea.
After lunching with the Sultan, the Royal party again went on board the Ariadne with the usual ceremonies, and started for the Crimea. They had a beautiful passage across the Black Sea, and arrived in the harbour of Sevastopol on 12th April. The great struggle with Russia was still fresh in every one’s memories, and they found not a single ship in the harbour, and all the forts and fortifications abandoned—indeed, the whole town on one side almost one mass of ruins. The débris remained just as they were left in 1856, and the populace, which before the war amounted to 60,000, had been reduced to 5500.
As soon as the Ariadne had cast anchor a boat came off containing General Kotzebue, Governor-General of New Russia, and General Jukoffsky, Governor of Crim Tartary, who had come from Simferopol to meet King Edward. They were accompanied by Admiral Kisalinsky, the Commandant of Sevastopol, and other officials, together with the British Consul at Odessa. The Russian authorities offered every possible assistance to the King and Queen in order that they might see everything that could be seen.
On that first day of their arrival they visited the Russian cemetery, and then drove to the battlefield of the Alma, where Mrs. Grey records the shaking which the Queen and she experienced in driving over the rough ground still full of great holes made by the shells used in the battle; indeed, the pony carriage broke down, and they had to get into a larger one with four horses. They saw the broken-down bridge over the Alma, just as it was left after the battle; the party drove through the water, and Dr. Russell pointed out where the Duke of Cambridge had passed with his Staff—in fact, the King and Queen examined the battlefield most thoroughly, studying the various positions occupied by the forces on both sides.
The Russian authorities entertained the party at luncheon in a Tartar farm-house, which had been used during the war as a field-hospital. Dr. Russell, Major Alison, and Captain Ellis, who had all been there during the war, were perpetually pointing out fresh places of interest, and in the evening the Russian officials were entertained at dinner on board the Ariadne. Nothing could exceed the tact and courtesy of the Russians, who affected to regard the war as if it had been some long distant historical campaign, and had no hesitation even in pointing out to their visitors the different places where the Russian forces had been beaten.
It is needless to mention the names of all the places visited by the Royal party. Wherever they went the beautiful old Russian custom of offering bread and salt was never omitted, the inhabitants of the villages always rushing out and presenting these signs of hospitality to Queen Alexandra.
On the 14th the Royal party found the Psyche in the harbour of Balaklava, in which they embarked and steamed out of the harbour to see the rocks at the entrance where the ship Prince was lost in 1845, and where the Duke of Cambridge had such a narrow escape in the Retribution. On re-landing they visited the field of Balaklava, and listened to many amusing stories told by Dr. Russell.