and I really felt for a little as if I were a Russian.

Once in the Cathedral of the Assumption, F- and I congratulated ourselves that we should see most of the service, though we should miss the anointing before the holy doors and the approach of the Emperor to the altar to communicate. The screen, of enormous height in this church, rose directly to our left, and one of the four huge pillars in the body of the church shut out its doors from our sight. Otherwise the diplomatic tribune was so high as to command the very place of the coronation, which was to be on a platform raised between the four big pillars, from which we were separated by only a narrow passage. Round this passage masters of ceremony were hurrying, showing people to their seats (that is not a word for a Greek church, by the way, where everybody must stand). The thrones were immediately to our right, rather to the back of the platform, and under a baldachin, or canopy, of gorgeous stuff, adorned with tufts of yellow and white feathers. I must have had exaggerated ideas of thrones: these looked like two very swell chairs. They stood on a dais of red; the whole erection in the middle had been covered with red cloth; a gold balustrade ran round it, and gold balustrades marked the divisions for the members of the imperial house, for the foreign princes, the council of the empire, etc. In the tribune corresponding to ours, on the opposite side of the platform, were the dames d'honneur à portrait, dames d'honneur without it, and various «ladies of high degree,» among others Skobeleff's sister, Mme. de Beauharnais, one blaze of jewels, and Mme. Shérémétiev, née Strogonov, looking quite splendid in the Russian court costume, which I saw for the first time. Its chief distinctions seem to be the long flowing sleeves, and the kakoshnick, or head-dress. This is more or less an inverted crescent in shape, and distinctly suits or does not suit its wearer. The maids of honor have it in scarlet velvet to match the velvet of their embroidered trains, with long veils of tulle depending from it behind over their shoulders. With married ladies this tulle was replaced by lace, I think, and their kakoshnicks were a mass of jewels; old Princess Klooked like a witch under her green velvet and pearls. Some of them, besides, wore from their kakoshnicks, close down to their eyebrows, a sort of net or lace, from which pearls or other stones hung on their foreheads; this is a matter of fancy merely, and not de rigueur, I was told. The tribune behind

the thrones, at the back of the church, was full of men; and a line of black-coated newspaper correspondents was visible among the uniforms-a little nineteenth-century addition to the pageant.

We had not been waiting long when there was a certain stir, and the place reserved for royalties began to fill quickly. The Czarevitch and the little Grand Duchess Xenia were quite in front, of course, and the Duke of Edinburgh had a very prominent place. His Royal Highness, who looked remarkably well and animated, was wearing the collar of the Garter, fastened with the regulation white knots on each shoulder; and this seemed to interest my little French neighbor more than anything else in the coronation, except the Empress's difficulty in holding up her imperial mantle. The scene was already very beautiful, and I think that the comparative smallness of the chapel-for it is scarcely more-rather added to than detracted from it. Certainly there is a barbarity of taste in the cathedral, in some of its huge, uncouth figures in gilded plaster and evident tinsel, side by side with much real splendor (to say nothing of the representation of God the Father, which may constantly be seen in the Greek churches, and which shocks otherwise than by the eye alone); but the general effect is one of great originality and picturesqueness.

The Chevaliers Gardes already stood with drawn swords on the steps that led to the throne; the twelve bishops, a splendid group in their «clothing of wrought gold,» had moved to the doors to meet the Emperor; and rows of priests were swinging their smoking censers before the screen. And when, amid ringing of bells and chanting of priests and choir, preceded by the imperial insignia carried on cushions, the Emperor and the Empress entered the cathedral and placed themselves in front of the thrones, one wondered if anywhere else so much magnificence and so much interest could be centered in so small a space. The Emperor and Empress stood while the crowns, the seal and sword, and scepter and globe, were arranged on a table made ready for them. On his Majesty's left were his supporters, the Grand Dukes Vladimir and Alexis; on the Empress's right, her brother, the Prince of Denmark, and the Grand Duke Sergius. Colonel Shipoff, as colonel of the Chevaliers Gardes, stood just behind, between the thrones, immovable, sword and helmet in hand; and toward the front were grouped various high dignitaries who carried the ends of the imperial mantles, such as the minister of war, the