About seven o'clock we
started in despair, first to hail a policeman on shore (at a most
respectful distance), to inquire where we could get _pratique_; then
we procured it, and sent word back to the 'Sunbeam' that she was out
of quarantine, and might hoist the yellow flag. We landed, went to the
market, bought some lovely carnations stuck in a prickly-pear leaf to
keep them fresh, and then went to the Hotel Royal--kept by the
landlord of the old Club House Hotel, where we had so often stayed--to
order breakfast. Our old friends the servants greeted us at every step
from the house-door to the coffee-room, and we were taken special care
of by a waiter who remembered us. After breakfast we went to pay some
visits. We thought we ought to go and look at the galleries and Signal
Station, as one or two of our party had never been here before; so we
started, some on foot and some on donkeys. All the way up the steep
streets to the Moorish castle, girls met us, selling lovely scarlet
carnations and yellow roses. The galleries have not changed in the
least since our last visit, but our soldier-guide told us they were
daily expecting some big guns to come out, and he gave us a minute
explanation how they were to be mounted. It was a pleasant ride,
neither too hot nor too cold.
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