sand horizon. The multitude so downcast an hour or two before by the anticipation of failure, was now elated by the consciousness of success. Amongst the crowd there were few who had not some personal interest in the triumph of the enterprise whose final accomplishment had arrived, after so many years of delay and difficulty, and hope deferred. Men shook hands with each other without cause or previous knowledge; cheers were raised from time to time, and taken up heartily; people laughed, cried, and shouted by turns; and in many faces and many voices you could catch the symptoms of an excitement not far removed from an hysterical passion. Surely, since the days when the Ten Thousand caught sight of the sea at last, and shouted "Thalatta, Thalatta!" there can have been few emotions more vivid than those of the multitude on the shores of Lake Timsah as the masts of the Aigle rose clearer and clearer out of the pall of smoke.

On she came, winding slowly and surely through the turns of the Canal; and when at last her hull came fully into view as she glided into the broad waters of the lake, there was one loud, deafening cheer, which was drowned almost before it was begun by the roar of cannon. From the batteries on the banks, the bang

of the heavy guns came booming across the water; the sharp, quick rattle of platoon-firing followed, and the troops shouted with the hoarse, brief, Egyptian cry as the first sea-going vessel which had ever crossed the Isthmus steamed into the inland lake, having on board the Empress of the French, the wife of the Sovereign who, through ill and good report, has been staunch in his support of the enterprise which now stood tested, proved, and accomplished. The last rays of the setting sun shone brightly on the low sand-hills which surround the lake, upon the masts, upon the groups of spectators clustered like ants on the bare black slopes, upon the still blue waters, upon the flags which the Aigle flaunted forth, upon the wide expanse of the desert stretching away into the far distance; and as the Aigle came on, the two French steamers that had come up from Suez passed out of the cutting, under which they lay moored, into the lake. Then scarcely had the Aigle got clear of the straits ere she was followed by the Gräf, bearing at its mainmast the yellow standard of the House of Hapsburg. There was a pause before any other ship hove into sight; and meanwhile the night had come on, and the crowd, seeing that the Empress was not about to land, dispersed hastily. Of the thousand lights that twinkled forth as the dusk set in,

of the vast labyrinth of lights crowded with dusky figures in every variety of garb, of the fireworks, of the fair— the strange, wild gathering of many nations—and of the evening which followed the entry, I have no time to write. It is late; and yet from my hut I can hear the sounds of music and dancing in the Arab encampment; the rockets are still soaring at intervals into the sky, lighting up the darkness with a passing gleam and flash. But to-night I can record nothing beyond the one great fact, that the Canal is a success and a reality.

FROM ISMAILIA TO SUEZ.

SUEZ, November 21.

FROM the hour when the Aigle was met by the Messageries Impériales Steamers from Suez in the waters of Lake Timsah, the problem of the Isthmus Canal was solved. It is true that till to-day no vessel of larger burthen than a mere steam launch had ever sailed from sea to sea; but still, when once Lake Timsah had been entered at one and the same time by large ships hailing from Port Saïd and from Suez, the enterprise to which M. de Lesseps has devoted his life was achieved. This conclusion was so manifest, that after the evening of the 17th the Canal was considered to be opened; and official as well as private congratulations were tendered to the author of the scheme as if the traversing of the Canal were already an accomplished fact. On the night of the ball the Empress presented the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour to M. de Lesseps in the name of the Emperor. At one time there was serious talk of the Empress's not prosecuting her journey to Suez, but

making sail at once for France, vid Port Saïd. It was urged, however, with great justice, that the curtailment of the original programme would be seized upon by the opponents of the Canal as an excuse for denying the completeness of its success; and, after communications had been exchanged between Compiègne and the Aigle, it was resolved to proceed with the progress. But it was found necessary to protract the journey to Suez from one day to two. Between the Bitter Lakes and the Red Sea the tide runs very fast and strong. Now experience has shown that, for vessels to steer safely through the Canal, they must have a good deal of way upon them. In order, however, to secure this advantage, when a ship is steaming down stream with the tide, it is necessary to go at a greater rate of speed than is consistent with due regard to the effect of the wash upon the banks; consequently it was deemed advisable that the inaugural expedition should sail against, not with, the tide; and as, both on Friday and Saturday, the tide was on the flow from the Red Sea at an early hour, it was decided that the fleet should proceed only as far as the Bitter Lakes on the first night after leaving Ismailia.

In a dramatic point of view, this alteration of the programme was injurious to the effectiveness of the in