The Argosy — page 73: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

60 Three Glimpses at Royalty. ; ladies like so many fickle cupids: kindling the faces of some into light, and leaving others in shadow. The effect is singularly picturesque, and the colouring opalesque. We see this from our height, while below, in the centre, magnificent footmen announce nobles, ambassadors, diplomats, and members of Parliament, together with their ladies, if happy enough to possess them. Uniforms dazzle and orders blaze; foreign and English notorieties appear and disappear; and aldermen move to and fro in scarlet robes. We watch the kaleidoscope for an hour or so, until we begin to expect the imperial and royal party. Meanwhile, the band of the Grenadier Guards perform within, and Bow Bells ring without. Russian officers come upon the stage in gold-barred uniforms, and expectation rises. It culminates at last in a flourish of trumpets. Trumpeters, like coach- men, precede royalty ; and we know, therefore, what is to follow. The Lord Mayor appears in crimson velvet robe and ermine tippet, the grandest costume of the day, preceded by the mace-bearer. He walks towards the entrance, and meets his regal guests. The band strike up the Russian National Anthem, the trumpeters pass through the hall, the Lord Mayor and civic authorities march in, and Alexander the Second appears, with the Princess of Wales on his arm. Shouts fill the hall as the Lord Mayor conducts him to his place in the centre of the throne. The Prince of Wales follows, with the Emperor’s daughter, our Duchess of Edinburgh—followed again by the Duke of Edinburgh, the Grand Duke Alexis, and others. For the moment we see only the Emperor. He stands in the centre of the crimson dais, beneath the gilded canopy—tall, handsome, commanding—the greatest potentate of the North. He looks both the king and the soldier—born ¢ither to govern or to fight. He is in uniform, and as he glances round, seems immovable as a military statue. Figure and head erect, he performs his part in the pageant grandly, and stands unmoved, to be gazed on by all those eyes! Surely, the pains and penalties of power are legion. His daughter, the whilom bride, on his mght, shows by her frank, pleasant face that she is already happy in her southern home, and feels, we are sure, proud of such a father ; while the Princess of Wales on his left, looks, as she always does, sweet and lovable. The Russian - and the Danish ladies are supported by the English Princes, their liege lords. i But our sympathies on this occasion go forth to the Emperor and his daughter, and also, as is natural, to the Duke of Edinburgh. The love of father and child is patent to all, and we English can appreciate the tenderness that has brought a Czar of Russia to our country, to see the daughter he so lately gave, in pledge of friendship and peace, to our care and affection. Let him be assured she will have them. As soon as we have shouted, clapped, and gazed sufficiently, and when , a | Gomicbooks.Gom