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11 June 1878 — Therapia | |
Tuesday. 11th [June 1878]. Conte left before & Zichy after breakfast. I wrote letters and at 3.30 had to dress to go to dine with the Sultan at Yildiz. We left home a little after 4 & drove in the landau reaching the Palace a little before 6. We were shown into a room where a chamberlain received us, & Mr Sandison at once joined us & presently Munir Bey the chief Dragoman, & then Mr Zarifi came in. Zarifi did not stop but said he had just been with the Sultan who had left him to go into the Harem. As soon as the Sultan sent for us we went upstairs & sat in a small room & had a long talk, Munir Bey & Mr Sandison interpreting. There was not the least trace of H.M. late nervousness and after a long talk he invited us to go & walk with him in the garden. As we were going down the steps into the garden, the Sultan stopped & told Munir Bey to tell me that he was going to found an order for Ladies & he wished to give me the 1st as a proof of his reconnaissance for what I had done for the refugees & wounded. I thanked him but did not express my doubt of being allowed to accept it by the Govt. He took us to see his birds in a large aviary where were a quantity of birds & parrots wh had that morng arrived from India & had been sent him by the Turkish consul at Bombay. He begged me to choose some & at last as he insisted I chose 2 parrots & some wax bills & canaries wh H.M. gave orders to be sent tomorrow. We then went over a small suspension bridge wh an engineer had just put up over the lake & then came round to the Palace again. We went upstairs to a small room where I took off my hat & we waited till dinner. We sat down just abt 8 oclock to dinner in one of the recesses of the great hall with the 4 Sultans’ portraits. I sat on H.M. right, Henry on his left. On my right Munir Bey on Henry’s left the 1st secy Ali Pasha– Opposite H.M. sat Osman Pasha (the Plevna hero) the new chamberlain & 2 Ministers on either side of him & Mr Sandison next Munir Bey. I forget who was next Ali Pasha—but I think the old chamberlain who first received us. We had a mixture of Frankish & Turkish cooking. There was a sweet dish made of strawberries wh was excellent. There were artichokes done in oil wh were less so tho’ not bad. After dinner the Sultan took us into the end drawing room himself pulled down the blind of the window behind the sofa on wh he sat & made me sit. We sat talking, he & Henry smoking cigarettes with Munir Bey to interpret till 9.30 when we asked leave to go home. It was moonlit & we had a lovely drive home. We had an escort until we passed the camps & so were not stopped more than an instant as we went home. | |
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