Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/245

 make their way through the crowd if they pleased, but the softer sex was recommended to remain on shipboard. So the project was abandoned, and the "disinvited" guests assembled on the upper deck of their steamer to console themselves by viewing the arrival and reception of the Khedive from that excellent vantage-ground.

The occasion was certainly an interesting one. It is not often that one has the opportunity of seeing a newly succeeded Prince make his first acquaintance with the most famous and anciently historic portion of his dominions; yet, strange as it seems—or as it may, perhaps, seem until we remind ourselves of his extreme youth—the present Khedive of Egypt had never before been up the Nile. He was now making his first State progress up its sacred stream as far as Wady Haifa, the virtual limit of his effective rule. Assuan, which we left two days ago, was gay with streamers and triumphal arches in readiness for his coming; it is the next place after this