CHAPTER XV.

Start on a mission to the East--Visit Gallipoli, and report upon it to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe--Report on the entire seaboard of the Dardanelles--Visit the Turkish army on the Danube, and report on its condition--Winter travelling in ball-room dress--Return to Constantinople--The Embassy there--The War Ministry at home--Their incapacity--Am offered a knighthood, but decline the honour--The Eastern question--The difficulty of regenerating the Turks by foreign interference--Their moral degradation--My knighthood is decided upon--Journey to Windsor--Lords Palmerston and Aberdeen--Monologues with predecessors in armour--The ceremony--Conclusion, 192

WHAT I SAW IN KAFFIR-LAND.