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palace. It is a large roomy house standing back some distance from the high iron railing, at the gateway of which were 2 arches, one on each side & in each archway was posted a mounted sentry.
The general arrangement reminded me of what I had heard or read of the Guards at Home, although the uniforms were not as showy as those of the Life Guards. The 2 sentries on horseback were in this case lancers dressed in a navy blue uniform having a white breastplate, large white gloves, high jack-boots, & neat red fez; the pennon on the lance was green & red & gave quite a gay touch. Tho' not motionless & statue-like as the Life Guards as said to be, the 2 sentries were very steady.
Floating over the flat roofed palace was the Egyptian flag, red with white star & crescent in the centre, & at various posts were infantry sentries.
Dismissing the garry we took in what was to be seen, & almost immediately were attracted by a military band marching towards us; meantime quite a fair-sized crowd had collected to see the guard-mounting, altho' it is of daily occurrence. Espying a body of soldiers fallen in on the barrack square on the opposite side of the spacious courtyard, we went over & found that it was the new guard & that the band had gone over to march them out to the courtyard in front of the guardroom.
It was a pretty sight to see them march out. First the brass band of abt 50 instruments, the uniform being a navy jacket with brass buttons, blue breeches with a double red stripe down each side, navy putties & black boots, with of course the typical red fez having a black tassel. The instruments were in