The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-03-26 00:00:00

THE LATE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.

On Saturday morning the mortal remains of the' late
Emperor of Russia were conducted with great pomp and
solemnity from the Winter Palace to the church attached
to the Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. The corners of
the nail were held by the four oldest generals in the army.
Alexander 111. walked immediately behind the funeral car,
followed by the Grand Dukes in full uniform. Nothing
occurred to disturb the ceremony.—The St. Petersburg Cor-
respondent of The Times gives the following interesting
account of the ceremony :

To describe in anything like detail the composition
of the vast and imposing procession which for several
hours to-day wound its slow and melancholy way
from the Winter Palace to the fortress would
require at least five or six columns of your space,
so I shall content myself by presenting you with
the main features of the interniinable cortege. Three
cannon fired from the fortress having directed the
various mourners to get ready and take their places,
a similar salvo about midday gave the signal to
start, when the sable standard, bearing in white
the initials of the murdered monarch, was unfurled
over the fortress, the artillery began to fire off minute
guns and all the bells of the city began to toll. The
whole route was lined by troops of the garrison, im-
mediately behind whom the public were permitted to
stand, but no gallery or platform for their convenience
had been erected, and householders were only allowed
at their personal risk and peril to let their windows
and balconies to strangers. The police had taken ex-
ceptional measures to preserve order, in the mainten-
ance of which the public, by handbills, were invited to
co-operate. In hundreds of thousands did the populace
of all classes flock to the Neva quays and every one
had an aspect of mourning. All the houses and public
buildings, too, showed the same amount of sable flags
and drapery as when the Empress, not a year ago, was
similarly conveyed from the Palace to the fortress.
At twelve o'clock the cortege began to move and it was
near two before the fortress was reached, the cannon firing
and the bells tolling all the time and till the body of
the deceased Emperor was deposited on the catafalque
prepared for it in the cathedral.
The procession consisted in all of 13 sections com-
prising 172 groups or members. First, at the head of
it rode a master of the ceremonies, followed by the
private escort of the Emperor ; the mounted
drummers and trumpeter of the Horse Guards, a
mounted officer in uniform and deep mourning, a
marshal of superior rank, with his baton, a squadron
of His Majesty's Hussars of the Guard, four com-
panies of the Guard Regiment of Pavlovsk, of the
C4(renadiers, the Engineers, and the Chasseurs of the
Guard; then another saperior officer of the Imperial
stable, followed by 40 liveried footmen, marching
four abreast, eight lackeys and as many kitchen-
men, likewise in fours, and a corps of 20 pages, with
their commander. At the head of the second section
of the cortege rode another master of the cere-
monies leading up a baton-bearing marshal and
the Imperial standard with the family arms, and His
Majesty's charger, flanked by two subaltern officers,
and followed by two grooms. Then followed
five standards, bearing respectively the arms of
Tcherkask, Armenia, Kabarda, Georgia, and Karate,-
line, carried by mounted functionaries of the eighth
class, ancireach of their horses led by two subaltern
officers. Then came the third section of the long
procession, including 14 other standards also home
ley mounted functionaries of the eighth class and
followed by more chargers and grooms. After this,
in similar order and array, came the fifth section,
comprising the 26 standards of the other districts
and provinces of Russia. Following these several
banners came, other emblems of Imperial power in
the shape of the marine flag, carried by a naval
captain in deep mourning, accompanied by two
frigate captains, and then the great black and white
and silk standards with the Imperial arms, the former
followed by a horse richly draped with sables, the
drapery similarly blazoned, and the latter by a figure
which attracted much attention—a knight in golden
armour mounted upon a gorgeously harnessed steed,
carrying a drawn sword, and supposed to symbolise the
bright and spotless character of the departed Sovereign.
After him walked a man at arms in sable armour,
with a drawn sword, and then the mourning standard
of black silk, followed by a horse in drapery of the
same hue, two grooms, with three officers of the
Imperial stable. The sixth section was headed by
another mounted master of the ceremonies, followed
by a marshal of the rank of major-general and the
official of.the sixth class, bearing the blazoned shields
of Schleswig-Holstein, Taurida, Siberia, Finland,
Poland, Astrakan, Kasen, Novgorod, Vladimir,
Kieff, and Moscow, with the grand escutcheon of the
Empire preceded by four major-generals and carried
by two such officers, assisted by two other superior
ones—all in full-dress uniform and deep mourning.
Then, similarly led as the other sections, walked re-
presentatives of the three corporations of peasants,
middle-class citizens, and merchants, with those of
rural administration, and the Mayor of St. Petersburg,
followed by the civic secretary and the Masters of the
various trade guilds, carrying the symbols of their pro-
fession. Then the representatives of various aenistvos
or provincial assemblies, of the nobility of the capital
and the country, of the various courts of justice, with
those of the various governments, &c. These were
followed, headed by a master of ceremonies as usual,
by the Red Cross, the Economical and the Philan-
thropic Societies, by the office-bearers and pupils of
the establishments, under the Conseil de Tutelle
Imperiale three abreast. Close upon these, in
similar marching order, came marshals representing
the Ministries of Posts and Telegraphs Justice,
Roads and Public Communication, and for the control
of the Empire, with numerous officials from these
departments, and also from the various other ministries
and high civil, legislative, and administrative bodies
and State organisms and autocratic officialisms. The
sable monotony was next relieved by a squadron of
His Majesty's Cuirassiers of the Guard, two heralds,
and four colonels carrying the four swords of the
Empire reversed. Then followed a crowd of function-
aries of the fourth class carrying on golden cushions
the foreign decorations, orders, and medals of the
deceased sovereign, 57 in number, and including all
the proudest and most distinguished honours of the
kind in Christendom and even Mussulmandom—the
Garter, the Black Eagle, the Golden Fleece, the Holy
Ghost, the Elephant, and the Medjidie ; and after
those came functionaries of the third class bearing
His Majesty's 17 other Russian orders and medals,
comprising a golden one in memory of the emanci-
pation of the serfs and three others for the
war of the years 1852, 1855, and 1856, the conquest of
the western Caucasus betweenelBs9 and 1864, and the
Turkish campaign of 1877-78. After these, in the care
of functionaries of the second class came the crowns of
the kingdoms of Georgia, Jauris, Siberia, Poland,
Astrakan, and Kasen with the Imperial globe,
sceptre, and crown, followed by two masters and the
Grand Master of the Ceremonies—all these order and
insignia bearing officials being flanked on each side by
a battalion of cadets from St. Paul's Military School,
marching in single file. The 13th section brought up
a taper-carrying multitude of ecclesiastical persons' in-
cluding the singers of Saint Abender Newsky and the'
Cathedral of Notre Dame de Kasen, the clergy, the
Metropolitans of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, the
archdeacons and priests of the Court, and the father
confessor of the deceased Emperor. And now at last
appeared the gorgeously gilt funeral car, drawn by
eight horses, led by as many functionaries of the
eighth class. On each corner sat four aides-de-camp
of his late Majesty, the cords and tassels depending
from the pall being held by eight generals and as many
major-generals, all in deep mourning, while at the sides
of the car walked 60 liveried pages, with burning
torches. Immediately after the imposing State hearse
thus escorted walked the Emperor Alexander 111. in
full-dress general's uniform of the Preobrajenski Regi-
ment of the Guard, looking sad and serious, yet con-
fident and composed; his Majesty being followed by
the Ministers of his household, the Minister of War,
and two or three generals of his suite, with all the
members of the House present in St. Petersburg,
and including the Grand Dukes Wladimir, Alexis,
Sergius, Paul Constantine Sergius, Michaelovitsch,
Dimitri, the three Nicholases, Peter, the two Michaels,
George and Alexander—all on foot, like His Majesty,
with the following princes :—Romanoffsky, Leuchten-
berg, Nicholas and George Maximilianovitch, Peter,
Alexander, and Constantine of Oldenburg, and the
Dukes George and Michael of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Following them walked the generals and aides-de-camp
of the Emperor, with the aides-de-camp and suites of
their Imperial Highnesses and the foreign Princes
just mentioned, and then, preceded by a company of
the Grenadiers of the Palace, approached a stately
mourning coach with the Empress and her children,
accompanied by the Princess Maria Paulovna, wife of
the Grand Duke Wladimir, the windows of the carriage
being flanked by two esquires at arms, and the rear
being guarded by a couple of Cossacks. Almost simi-
larly escorted drove in one mourning carriage the Grand
Duchesses Alexandera Josephevna, daughter of the
late Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and wife of the Grand
Duke Constantine, Olga Feodorovna, a princess of
Baden and wife of the Grand Duke Michael, with the
Duchess of Edinburgh, and in another carriage the
Princess Marie Maximilianovna, the Princess
Rornanovsky, Duchess de Leuchtenberg, Therese
Petrovna, the Princess Eugenie Maximilianovna of
Oldenburg, and the Duchess 1-161bne Georgievna of
Mecklenberg-Strelitz. Following these came the
Ladies of Honour attending on these Princesses, then
the great Court officials, with Chamberlains arid
Gentlemen-in-Waiting. His late Majesty's physicians
and body servants' &c., five companies from as many
regiments of the Guards, one battery of Artillery,
two squadrons of Cavalry, another battery of Horse
Artillery, and finally, a squadron from the School of
Cavalry Cadets.
As the funeral car passed, all the troops along the
line of route presented arms, while the bands of the
various military contingents in the cortege played
solemn music. On the hearse arriving at the entrance
to the cathedeal, in which places had been previously
assigned, among others, to the Ambassadors, ministers,
and ether members of the Diplomatic Corps, with their
ladies, the pall was taken up by eight generals, while
the Emperor, assisted by the Grand Dukes and
Princes, lifted the coffin and bore it into the sacred
pile, preceded by the Metropolitan and clergy, and
placed it on the catafalque prepared for it. On each
side of the coffin-bearers marched six Grenadiers of
the Palace without their arms, and six under-officers
of the Guard Regiments whereof the deceased Czar
was chief, with their helmets off. The steps of
the catafalque being thus reached, the coffin-lid was
taken off by eight aides-de-camp of the Emperor and
laid upon a table covered with a silver cloth fringed
with gold. On the upper cstrade of the catafalque, on
each side of the coffin, six captains of the Guard take
their stand; on the steps 12 pages ; at the foot as
many pupils from the military schools; beside the
columns supporting the canopy, four under-officers of
the Grenadiers of the Palace with grounded arms—all
as a guard of honour- while the entrance to the
catnedral, outside and inside, is guarded by four sen-
tinels. The coffin having been placed upon the cata-
falque, the Metropolitan, assisted by the superior
clergy, commenced the solemn and impressive ser-
vice for the dead, in which all most fervently
joined,