[5]. Blowitz’s opinion of Shuvalov is echoed in von Bulow: "Count Shuvalov was a clever, skilful, amiable and distinguished man, but like so many Russians, he worshipped more than was fitting at the shrine of Aphrodite Pandemos." (Bulow, My Memoirs.) (See also Note 7.)
[6]. The cartoons of the two English grooms and the crafty fishmonger, and the article headed "Hankey Pankey", are to be found in Punch of May 11, 1878; the voluptuous figure entitled "Harlequin Spring Fashions—really a very little addition to the too-scanty and bespangled costumes Mr Punch has noticed so often lately", appeared in the previous week.
[7]. According to von Bulow: "On one of his evening walks in the Friederichstrasse … which the Berlin police supervised so discreetly, to prevent any unpleasant incident, he (Shuvalov) had made the acquaintance of a too-facile lady, from whose arms it was difficult to entice him." (See My Memoirs.)
[8]. Flashman’s version of the Congress of Berlin tallies fairly well with Blowitz’s, which does not differ in its essentials from other accounts. From whom Blowitz obtained the advance copy of the treaty is unknown. Waddington, the French Foreign Minister, has been suggested; he was English by blood, though born in Paris, and like Flashman was educated at Rugby, but there is no evidence that he was the source of the leak. What is certain is that Blowitz had an excellent source at the heart of the Congress, and scooped his rivals in day-to-day reporting as well as in obtaining the treaty, much to their annoyance, especially the Germans. He did interview Bismarck (whose under-the-table complaint is authentic), and seems to have bluffed him into withholding the Treaty from the German press by himself demanding an exclusive copy. He left the Congress early, pretending to sulk, dictated from memory a substantial portion to his secretary, had the text telegraphed from Brussels by his secretary, and the following day had the satsifaction of an exclusive story in The Times. It was one of the greatest scoops in newspaper history, although Flashman is wrong in saying that all the clauses appeared; in fact, seven did not.
There is one important difference between Flashman’s version of the Congress, and that given by Blowitz in his Memoirs. Blowitz says that his information source and go-between was "a young foreigner" who had approached Blowitz for help, and whom he infiltrated into the entourage of an unidentified statesman at the Congress; once installed, he passed information to Blowitz by means of the hat exchange. This seems a highly unlikely story, and it is reasonable to assume that Blowitz, in writing his Memoirs, invented it to protect the identities of Flashman, Caprice, and Shuvalov. It is worth noting that von Bulow’s story of Shuvalov’s infatuation with a courtesan (quoted in Note 7) is consistent with Flashman’s version.
[9]. Sir Garnet (later Viscount) Wolseley confirmed his reputation as Britain’s first soldier by his suppression in 1882 of the Egyptian army’s revolt against the Khedive. The rebellion was led by Arabi Pasha, an ardent nationalist and anti-European, and after the massacre of more than a hundred foreigners at Alexandria, the port’s defences were bombarded by the Royal Navy and Egypt was invaded by Wolseley’s force which eventually numbered 40,000. He gained control of the Suez Canal, and when his advance guard was attacked by Arabi at Kassassin on August 28, the Egyptian infantry were routed by a moonlight charge of the British cavalry, in which the Life Guards and the Blues of the Household Brigade ("Tin Bellies", to Flash-man) were prominent. Sir Baker Russell’s horse was shot under him, but he mounted another, presumably with Flashman’s assistance. Arabi’s army of about 40,000 was strongly entrenched at Tel-el-Kebir, but after a remark-able night march of six miles in silence, Wolseley’s force made a surprise dawn attack, headed by the Highland Brigade, who overwhelmed the Egyptian position. About 2000 of the defenders were killed for the loss of 58 British dead and 400 wounded and missing. Cairo was occupied after a forced march, Arabi was captured and exiled to Ceylon, and the rebellion had been crushed in 25 days. (See Charles Lowe, "Kassassin and Tel-el-Kebir", in Battles of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Major Arthur Griffiths, 1896.)
[10]. One can only take Flashman’s word for it that there was a "strong shave" (rumour) in the clubs about Gordon as early as the beginning of October. The situation in the Sudan did not begin to look critical until after the wipe-out of Hicks' command by the Mahdi at Kashgil early in November, and Gordon’s name does not appear to have been mentioned in official circles until some weeks later, when Gordon himself was still contemplating service in the Congo. No doubt Flashman’s instinct for self-preservation made him unusually prescient.
[11]. The first official journey of the famous Orient Express began at the Gare de l’Est, Paris, on the evening of Sunday, October 4, 1883. The great train was the brainchild of Georges Nagelmackers of Liege, founder of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits, and realised his dream of a through express of unsurpassed luxury which should run to the ends of Europe. That first train consisted of the locomotive, two baggage cars, two sleeping-cars, and a dining salon which was to become justly famous; about forty passengers (all male as far as Vienna, where two ladies came aboard), made the inaugural trip from Paris to Constantinople, among them ministers of the French and Belgian governments, several journalists including Blowitz, a Turkish diplomat, Mishak Effendi (identified by Flashman), and Nagelmackers himself. It is interesting, in view of the alias supplied by Blowitz for Flashman in Berlin five years earlier, that on the Orient Express Blowitz shared Voiture 151 with a Dutchman named Janszen. Blowitz got a book out of the trip, which was a memorable one even by his standards, for in Constantinople he obtained the first interview ever granted by the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdul-Hamid II; in Bucharest he also inter-viewed the King of Roumania. And being Blowitz, he thoroughly enjoyed the luxury and conviviality of the journey, especially the dining salon. One cannot blame him; as all who have travelled on it agree, there is no train like the Orient Express. (See Michael Barsley, Orient Express: The Story of the World’s Most Fabulous Train, 1966; Blowitz, Memoirs. For the stops and times of Flashman’s journey, see Express Trains, English and Foreign, by E. Foxwell and T. C. Farrer, 1889.)
[12]. Whoever "Princess Kralta" may have been, she was obviously a lady of considerable attraction and character. It is possible that Blowitz concealed her real name, since it is a device he employs elsewhere in his Memoirs; the only hint he gives of her origin is to describe her mother as "an Oriental flower", but from Flashman’s description it would seem that her father at least was European, and Northern European at that. Be that as it may, "Kralta" appears to have occupied an influential position in Continental diplomatic and royal society; the account of her activities which Blowitz gave to Flashman tallies closely with the Memoirs—her acquaintance with Bismarck, his employment of her to discover how Blowitz had got the Berlin Treaty, the melodramatic incident of the candle in the draught which alerted Blowitz to her treachery, and the sensational tale of how, at the German Emperor’s request, she soothed the distracted Bismarck with "some kind of diversion"—all these are in the chapter entitled, with Blowitzian panache, "The Revenge of Venus". He does not state bluntly how she "diverted" Bismarck, but the inference could hardly be clearer. For Flashman’s experiences with "Kralta" we have only his own testimony. As to her appearance and personality, he is more detailed than Blowitz, but there are no contradictions between them: both agree that she was imperious and charming, and while Flashman is more specific about what are called vital statistics, he can have had no quarrel with the little Bohemian’s romantic raptures. Blowitz was beglamoured on first sight of the Princess at a dinner party, to such an extent that he could not remember who else was present—a most unusual lapse of his remarkable memory. He enthuses about her beauty, radiance, "exquisite elegance", "silky hair" (chesnut at their first meeting, but subsequently "golden"), "melodious voice," "blue eyes which lighted up one of the most fascinating faces I have ever seen", and so on; he even notes the "brilliancy" of her teeth. There is something approaching awe in his description of her crossing a room with "the vague rustle of her silken robes … like a rapid vision", and one gets the impression sometimes that he was rather afraid of her.