"The Mediterranean Excursion"

About ten o'clock at night a boat was sent ashore on a point of land, with several of the passengers who were willing to travel all night, (it being seven miles each way) and run the risk of being put in prison for violating the quarantine laws for the sake of seeing Athens by moonlight. [...]seeing no end nor order to the parley, the Emperor said: "Well, you come in to see the house," and made for the door, and in his hurry made an unsuccessful attempt to open it, it was finally opened by a servant on the inside, the Emperor then walked in, followed by all the party. Here we were received with the utmost cordiality and the same order prevailed on the part of the passengers who stood patiently awaiting a chance to speak to the Duke while he, too, was buttonholed to come on board the ship. Thanking them for the kindness, he led us into the house; after going through its garden and the grounds we were invited to take breakfast, which we did, although it seemed more like a lunch, for it was by this time after 2 P.M., after which our interview with royalty ended without a chance to shake hands, which we expected to do on the morrow when he came on board, but the morrow came and no Emperor came on board, neither did he intend to, for it would be compromising his dignity in the sight of his people; we were then told that if the Emperor would not come that it would not be a breach of etiquette for us to go away in the evening, but we waited till the next day, when an invitation was extended to us to visit the Emperor's yacht that was lying near our vessel, and several Admirals and Captains came on board-, also the Governor General, to pay us a visit, but no Emperor, so we started for Constantinople in the evening of the 28th, arriving there in the morning of the 29th.