[Sidenote:  The Mediterranean.]

Sunday, March 24th.—­On board H.M.S.  ’Terrible.’—­Here is a change of scene!  The last words of this journal were written in the Gulf of Suez, on board the ‘Ferooz.’  I now write from the Mediterranean, off the island of Candia, whose snow-capped mountains are looking down upon us; very different from the parched ranges of hills wrapped in perpetual heat haze, which I described to you four days ago.

[Sidenote:  Greece.]

March 26th.—­Seven A.M.—­I have been about two hours on deck.  A beautiful morning, and smooth sea.  On our right the coast of Albania, hilly and wooded.  On our left the land is low, and covered apparently with olive trees.  Before us the southern end of Corfu, which we are approaching.  Farther on, the channel along which we are gliding seems to be closed in as a lake, the Corfu mountains and those of Greece overlapping each other.  The snow-covered crests of some of the latter gleam in the sunshine.  It is a lovely scene.  Yesterday we passed Cape Matapan, Zante, &c., all on our right; but there was a good deal of wind and sea, and an unusual amount of motion for the ‘Terrible.’  Navarino, too, we passed; but I did not know it at the time.  We propose to call in at Corfu, take in coal, and see what can be seen during the day.  But I hope to be off for Trieste to-morrow morning.

[Sidenote:  Corfu.]

March 27th.—­We found at Corfu three line-of-battle ships and Admiral Dacres, who came on board to see me.  I landed at 11 A.M., and went to the Government House, where I found Sir H. Storks.  He took me a drive of about thirteen miles, to the top of a pass in the mountains called Pantaleone, from which there is a very extensive view.  It is a beautiful island.  The day bright and sunny.  Nothing can be more picturesque than the town.  The people, too, seem to me very handsome.  I saw this morning the captain of a sloop-of-war who has been visiting various ports in the Adriatic.  He was received at Ancona with a furore of enthusiasm, and exceedingly well treated at Venice, Trieste, &c., by the Austrians, who are burning to revenge themselves on the French, and anxious to ally themselves with us for that purpose....  We have been steaming through a narrow channel, with the snow-covered mountains of Albania on our right; but we are now emerging into the open Adriatic.

[Sidenote:  England.]

By Trieste and Vienna he travelled rapidly to Paris, where he was met by Lady Elgin; and on the 11th of April 1861, within a few days of the anniversary of his departure, he found himself once more on British soil.

[Sidenote:  Warm reception.] [Sidenote:  Dunfermline.]

The reception which awaited him at home was even warmer than that which he had met with two years before.  What gratified him, perhaps, more than any of the many similar expressions of good-will was the cordial welcome with which he was greeted by his old friends and neighbours at Dunfermline:  friends from whom he had been, as he told them, so long an unwilling absentee.  His answer to their address was the simple and natural expression of this feeling.