Osborne, the Queen's retreat on the Isle of Wight. Victoria visited regularly, usually bringing her female guests, including the Empress of Russia and the Princess of Wales, to meet the Munshi's female relatives. One visitor, Marie Mallet, the Queen's maid-in-waiting and wife of civil servant Bernard Mallet, recorded: Reid never saw Mrs Karim unveiled, though he claimed that whenever he was called to examine her, a different tongue was protruded from behind the veil for his inspection. In 1892, the Munshi's name began to appear in the Court Circular among the names of officials accompanying the Queen on her annual March trip to the French Riviera. As usual, Victoria spent Christmas 1892 at Osborne House, where the Munshi, as he had in previous years, participated in tableaux vivants arranged as entertainment. The following year, during Victoria's annual holiday in continental Europe, he was presented to King Umberto I of Italy. In the words of a contemporary newspaper account, "The King did not understand why this magnificent and imposing Hindoo should have been formally presented to him. The popular idea in Italy is that the Munshi is a captive Indian prince, who is taken about by the Queen as an outward and visible sign of Her Majesty's supremacy in the East." By 1893, Victoria was sending notes to Karim signed in Urdu. She often signed off her letters to Karim as "your affectionate mother, VRI" or "your truly devoted and fond loving mother, VRI". Travels and Diamond Jubilee The Munshi was perceived to have taken advantage of his position as the Queen's favourite, and to have risen above his status as a menial clerk, causing resentment in the court. On a journey through Italy, he published an advertisement in the Florence Gazette stating that "[h]e is belonging to a good and highly respectful famiely". Karim refused to travel with the other Indians and appropriated the maid's bathroom for his exclusive use. On a visit to Coburg, he refused to attend the marriage of Victoria's granddaughter Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, because her father, Victoria's son Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, assigned him a seat in the gallery with the servants. Confronted by the opposition of her family and retainers, the Queen defended her favourite. She wrote to her private secretary Sir Henry Ponsonby: "to make out that the poor good Munshi is so low is really outrageous &