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

The Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph also
gives a description of the ceremony, in which he
says :

'There were probably not fifty strangers within the
church when I entered it, although there may have been fifty
times that number waiting patiently outside. Those who
were admitted branched to the right and to the left when
they came to the foot of the catafalque, and, ascending the
steps of the dale, bent over the open coffin, reverently kissed
the hand of the dead Czar, slowly retreated down the steps
of the dais, and were carefully piloted to the door of de-
parture by the gentlemen ushers.

"A line of bearded priests, in black coats, were ranged at
the foot of the coffin, crooning their monotonous chants;
and the atmosphere was heavy and oppressive with the
fumes of many waxen tapers at the head of the coffin. At
its sides, on the grades of the crimson-coloured dais ; and at
stated points on the pavement of the nave were ranged
In mathematical precision of correspondence to right
and to left, Generals, Aides-de-Camp, Chamberlains,
Marshals of the Court, Cadets of the Corps des Pages,
Ushers, Groom of the Chambers, and Herald of Arms; some
with swords drawn, others with swords sheathed, some with
lighted tapers, others with batons and wands, but all stock-
still, silent, rigid, like the knights and pawns on some great
chessboard.

"I ascended the steps of the dais, bent overthe verge of the
coffin, and did as others did, but what I saw in the bier I
forbear to dwell upon ; for "Decay's effacing lingers" had
set their mark there all too surely.
"The head looked very small. The hand was covered by a
thin veil of white gauze. This is how Alexander 11., the
Czar of All the Russias, really lay in death. And so—noise-
lessly, and deeply touched by an ever memorable sight—we
came out again into the snow."

In a leader moralising upon the gorgeous spectacle
of the transport of the late Russian Emperor's body
from the Winter Palace to the Cathedral of St. Peter
and St. Paul, The Times remarks that it suggests a
new illustration of the vanity of human wishes, and
thus continues—

"The whole pomp of a measureless dominion, typified in
the ceremonial, had been unable to guard its centre and
object from a horrible and ghastly end. Every detail
in the pageant, the crowns of six kingdoms, the im-
perial globe, the insignia of a hundred illustrious knight-
hoods, the sombre representatives of eaoh class of
the monarch's subjects, his warriors, the thunder of
his cannon, the sorrow of his brethren, of his sons,
of his daughter, who would have glivily bought his life
with their own, might have been used by the poet as a
foil and antithesis to the rude reality of death. Yet there
was more in the splendid scene than a solemn masque
arranged by heralds. Not an incident in the long escort of
a mutilated corpse to its resting place but is a reflex of actual
fact. Not an emblem of sadness and lamentation but
has its corresponding actual sentiment. The murdered
Emperor wore every diadem which sparkled behind
his bier. The orders piled high in front were not one
too many for the awe or respect he inspired among
neighbours and allies. Soldiers and statesmen who followed
in his coffin's train had been taught to bow to the least
intimation of his sovereign will. Church bells and fortress
guns only testified over his catafalque the homage they had
rendered to the captain of Russian armies, to the Pontiff
of the Russian faith. The hush of the enormous crowd
who witnessed the cavalcade, the trappings of woe, the half.
subdued cries, the tears, were only raindrops from the fringe
of a cloud of utter desolation with which the huge Empire
had felt itself to be overshadowed from the moment of the
slaughter of its lord and its father."

The Duchess of Edinburgh (the St. Petersburg Cor-
respondent of the Daily News says) bears her great
loss with characteristic fortitude. On her arrival here
last week, and after visiting the chamber of death,
she was greatly overcome, and sleep refused to assuage
her grief. The next morning, however, she visited the
Princess Urilffat, and remained more than an hour
with her. In the evening the Duke and Duchess of
Edinburgh, incognito, paid a visit to the spot where
the fatal bomb struck the Emperor. This is now en-
closed and planted with cypress trees at each corner,
and the intervening space is covered with memorial
wreaths, with an Ikon or sacred picture placed at one
end, and a silver lamp burning before it. Here the
Duchess remained praying for some minutes, and the
people standing near, seeing a lady in deep mourning
kneeling on the snow, were much moved.