After the Muslim prayer, the Grand Ulema read a speech. A Te Deum was then sung by the Christian clergy and the ceremony was closed with a long speech by Bishop Bauer.
In the evening, the celebration continued with a fireworks display given by the khedive, and by the illumination of Port-Saïd all strewn with banners and banners. to enter the canal.
The Eagle led the way. At half past eight, the imperial yacht crossed its entrance, hidden by two colossal wooden pyramids.
In an hour and a quarter he was at Raz-el-Ech, fourteen kilometers from Port Said, and at half past twelve he passed Kantara. It had traveled 44 kilometers in four hours, and despite its 18 meters wide and 99 meters long it had not ceased to steer with the greatest precision.
At Kantara, where he received the salute of the ship of the Egyptian navy Latif he found two immense mounds formed by the work of the excavators, adorning the two banks covered with greenery, and surmounted by large up-to-date inscriptions, made in foliage, on one of which one read Long live the Empress! and on the other A Ismail, the city of Kantara.
Meanwhile, a huge movement was taking place in Ismailia. A multitude, of all colors and all costumes, piled up in the wide streets of this nascent city, resembling a vast cradle of foliage and flowers. on camels or dromedaries, the Bedouins of the desert, carrying their guns slung over their shoulders; camels led by men on foot, laden with food, tents and all accessory utensils. All the Egyptian village sheiks seemed to have met in front of Lake Timsah, so large was their crowd. European guests and tourists were looking for lodgings and found none; for all the hotels and even the private houses were not occupied, but encumbered. Fortunately, the viceroy's vigilance had provided for this difficulty; and, by his orders, lines of tents, containing several beds, were pitched along the fresh-water canal, and afforded much appreciated shelter at this time of distress. The natives, for their part, had erected their tents, without order, between the city and the freshwater canal, but this disorder was not only picturesque.
Every minute these multitudes increased, and, according to a calculation of the khedive, they did not amount, in the days of the 17th and 18th, to less than 100,000 souls. The excitement was great in these crowds, but it was a joyful and confident excitement. Along the banks, she watched anxiously for the slightest ship variegated with smoke that she might have seen on the horizon. Finally, towards half-past four, blackish vapors appeared, not in front, but behind Lake Timsah, not on the side of Port Said, but on the side of Suez. We are astonished, we wonder, and we learn that these steamers are the forerunners of three Egyptian ships which were finishing crossing the channel between the Red Sea and Ismailia.
Almost at the same time, the Eagle made its appearance between the two banks of the gigantic trench of the threshold of El Guisr; the imperial yacht advanced on these calm waters, slowly, with a kind of calm majesty, in silence, as though absorbed in the thought of these new destinies of which it was the inauguration.
As soon as the Eagle is within earshot, cheers break out; the Empress herself stimulated this momentum; in a way, it signals to the spectators M. de Lesseps, as the first on whom their enthusiasm should be focused.
Half an hour later, the imperial yacht entered Lake Timsah, where it was greeted by the salutes of the three Egyptian warships. To these salutes were mingled the discharges of the land batteries, served
by an artillery regiment that the viceroy had brought to Ismailia for the occasion, the sounds of all the musical instruments that the Arabs have to show their joy, finally the clamours, both enthusiastic and grateful, of the diverse races who crowded around this spectacle, unique in the history of royal receptions.
As soon as the anchor was cast, the khedive hastened to board the Aigle, and, after having presented his homage to the Empress, threw himself effusively into the arms of M. de Lesseps. P>