At noon General Grant visited the Governor General of Malta. On leaving the General was saluted with twentyone guns. A regiment was drawn up in front of the palace as a guard of honor. The Governor, a famous old English General, Van Straubeuzee, wore the Order of the Grand Cross of the Bath. He received the General and party at the door of the palace surrounded by his council and a group of Maltese noblemen. After presentation to Lady Van Straubeuzee the same ceremonies were repeated. In the evening there was a state dinner to the General and party at the palace, including among the guests Commander Robeson and Lieutenant Commander Caldwell, of the Vandalia, as well as the Captain and executive officer of the Gettysburg. At the dinner General Grant's health was proposed, which was responded to in the heartiest manner. We all then went to the opera, and on the entrance of the General, the company sang the "StarSpangled Banner," Miss Wheelock, of Boston, singing the air. The cheering was enthusiastic and the reception of the General cordial in the last degree.

On the following day a visit was paid to the Duke of Edinburgh's ship, the Sultan, and a very pleasant season passed. On Monday, the 31st, the party sailed for Alex

andria.

HOSPITALITIES

CHAPTER XII.

IN MALTA -THE ENGLISH BANDS PLAY

AMERICAN AIRS-"THE MARQUIS"-A LITTLE GALE

-SUNSHINE AND LAND-WARM WELCOME AT ALEXANDRIA-GRANT MEETS STANLEY-FROM ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO THE KHEDIVE RECEIVES GENERAL GRANT -THE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE CONSUL-GENERAL.

There were many temptations, writes Mr. Young, to remain in Malta. Hospitalities showered upon us. All the great ones of the place, beginning with His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, vied with one another in making our visit a pleasant one. I think if our mail had been ordered to Malta instead of Alexandria, we should have remained anyhow. At the last moment there was a disposition to stay, but the General had taken his leave and sent his cards, and he is not apt to change his mind. In the morning of the last day of the year, he pushed ashore and roamed about an hour or two through the quaint streets of the strange, old town. I have called the town Malta, but it is really named Valletta, after John de la Valette, who was Grand Master of the Order of St. John, and built the town in the middle part of the sixteenth century. The knights held Malta for nearly two hundred and fifty years, and remained until the French and then the English drove them out. The people have a peculiar dialect, based on the Arabic, with plenty of Italian, French and English thrown in. The prevailing industry seems to be following officers and strangers around all day and begging. The town has many beautiful views, and I could see very easily how life might be toler

ated here for the warm, genial air. It was the last day of the year when we pushed out into the bay and turned our prow toward the Mediterranean. There was quite a group of officers on deck surrounding the General and his party. As we neared the Sultan the band played our national airs, winding up with "Auld Lang Syne." We exchanged greetings with them, and with our compatriots of the

HOUSETOP AND BATTLEMENTS AT MALTA.

Gettysburg, who had gathered on the quarterdeck to say goodby. So our last remembrance of Malta is the music that came from the Sultan, the hurrah that came from the Gettysburg and the lowering of one solitary flag, far up the cliff, which indicated that our consular agent was on the watch and was bidding us good speed.

Our General fell into his sea life quite readily. He seemed to welcome the sea with the rapture of a boy going home for a holiday. I can well imagine what a holiday it must be to one who has done in sixteen years the work

imposed upon General Grant. He is not an early riser, but keeps up the American custom of a breakfast at ten. After breakfast he takes up a newspaper, if he can find one, and a cigar. My friend, Mark Twain, will be glad to know that the General read with delight and appreciation his "Innocents Abroad." In Naples one of us discovered an English version of the "Nasby Papers," which was a boon. About noon, if the weather is calm, the General comes on deck and converses, or studies the sea and the scenery. Dinner comes at six o'clock, and after dinner there is talk. When the General is in the mood, or when some subject arises which interests him, he is not only a good, but a remarkably good talker. His manner is clear and terse. He narrates a story as clearly as he would demonstrate a problem in geometry. His mind is singularly accurate and perspicacious. He has few, very few, resentments, and this was a surprising feature, remembering the battles, civil and military, in which he has been engaged. I have heard him refer to most of the men, civil and military, who have flourished with him, and there is only one about whom I have seen him show feeling. But it was feeling like that of the farmer in the schoolbook who saw the viper which he had warmed to life about to sting him. I do not mention names, because I have no wish to excite controversies, such, for instance, as the controversy over Sumner. I will only allude to the Sumner business so far as to say that I think General Grant has been rather severely used in the matter. I have never heard General Grant speak with bitterness of Mr. Sumner. He told his story of the removal of Mr. Motley, and only told it, if I may quote his own words, when he had been charged by the friends of Mr. Sumner with having killed Mr. Motley. It seems to me that if history is to be written both sides should be heard, and in a transaction

in which General Grant bore a conspicuous part, he is certainly entitled to be heard as a witness. As I have said, I have never heard General Grant speak with bitterness of Mr. Sumner, which leads me to repeat the observation I made a moment or two ago-that he shows no resentment. I had known General Grant fairly well before I became the companion of his travels, and had formed my own opinion of his services and character. A closer relation strengthens that opinion. The impression that the General makes upon you is, that he has immense resources in reserve. He has in eminent degree that "two o'clock in the morning courage," which Napoleon said he alone possessed among his marshals and generals. You are also impressed with his good feeling and magnanimity in speaking of comrades and rivals in the war. In some cases-especially in the cases of Sherman and Sheridan, MacPherson and Lincoln-it becomes an enthusiasm quite beautiful to witness. Cadet days are a favorite theme of conversation, and after cadet life the events of the war. I wish I could dare to send you some of these conversations, some of the General's estimates of men and narratives of events. But for the present the very nature of my mission forbids it.

Among our company is a gentleman who attends the General as a courier or secretary in foreign tongues. I call our friend "secretary" because the title is the one of his own choosing. His name is Jacques Hartog, native of Holland, educated in Paris and citizen of the world. We call him the "Marquis." The title expresses Mr. Hartog's address and accomplishments, and I am proud to publish the renown that the Vandalia mess has conferred upon him. He has an aristocratic air, and it is almost like a breeze from land—a breeze from the Sicilian shores laden with the odor of the orange blossoms-to see the Marquis come to breakfast in the wardroom, with the sea rolling