The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-15 00:00:00

The Funeral of the Czarewich.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
BERLIN, June 11.
On the 17th of April, at 4 o'clock in the after-
noon, the Russian frigate Alexander Nevski left the
roadstead of Villafranca. The Imperial flag was
displayed on the mizentop, and in the chief cabin
lay the earthly remains of the young Czarewich of
All the Russias. One Admiral, three Generals, two
Privy Councillors, and M. Ohm, the private secre-
tary of the deceased Prince, attended upon the cata-
falque. His Russian Majesty's ships Vitjas and
Almas (Warrior and Diamond) escorted the floating
hearse on its melancholy voyage home, the French
steamer Montebello and the English ironclad Invin-
cible accompanying the Russian squadron for seve-
ral hours, and bringing back the latest news from
his son to the afflicted Czar. After a four days
stay at Gibraltar, where the Oleg frigate joined, Lis-
bon was reached on May 10. The coast batteries, the
Portuguese fleet, the English ironclad Defence, and
_ .

the American ships Niagara, Sacramento, and Kear-

sage saluted the funeral squadron on entering the
Tagus and making for the port. An hour after their
arrival Don Augusto, the brother of the King, made
his appearance on board the Alexander Nevski, and
attended the performance of holy mass by the ortho-
dox clergy. On May 11 Admiral Lessowski and
Generals Annenkoff, Sturler, and Richter, together
with many other officers of the convoy were presented
to the King. On the 13th the squadron weighed
anchor, and set out again, accompanied by the De-
fence, the Niagara, and two Portuguese schooners.
Of the foreign convoy the Defence and Niagara re-
mained with them as far as Plymouth, where the
combined Russo-English-American squadron cast
anchor on the 17th. On the 19th the four Russian
vessels, with the Niagara and the English frigate
Liverpool, stood out to sea, and continued their
voyage to Christiansand and the Belt. Before
making the former place the foreign ships, however,
passed with their Russian consorts, which, having
doubled the Skaw, were met on the 26th by his
Danish Majesty's yacht Grip, with the Royal Mas-
ter of Ceremonies on board. The day after the King
and Crown Prince of Denmark paid a visit to the
Alexander Nevski off Nyborg, and were present at
one of the regular celebrations of the Panichides, or
funeral mass, which had been going on twice a day
ever since the departure of the Imperial squadron
from Italy. Father Pachomi, a monk of the Order
and convent of St. Sergins, had been specially
attached to the convoy for this ecclesiastical pur-
pose. The Crown Prince of Denmark sailed with
the squadron as far as Alsen, where the Prussian
frigate Victoria took its place in the international
guard of honour which had seen the deceased Prince
from Italy to the Russian seas. A fresh supply of

coals was taken in from some Imperial transports,

and the ships set out again for the last stage of their
long and ceremonial passage to the north. Off
Hochland the Victoria left, the Russian frigate
Smeloi (the Bold) joining the squadron immediately
after with despatches. On the 2d of June, at four
o'clock in the afternoon, the thunder of a hundred
batteries, the ringing of the bells, and the chanting
of the priests, as they proceeded to the pier, an-
nounced to the expectant inhabitants of Cronstadt

that the late Grand Duke and heir had returned to
his native shores.

The Emperor, with all the Russian and many
foreign Princes, had gone to meet the funeral squad-
ron at the London buoy, outside the harbour. When
the Alexander Nevski entered port, his Majesty was
standing by the side of the sarcophagus which con-
tained the earthly remains of his son. For the last
two hours the batteries had been firing minute guns.
The 18 men-of-war in port had been drawn up in
line of battle, to receivethe living and the dead with
the ceremony due to their rank ; but the wind being
too high, and the weather not allowing them to keep
their allotted stations for any length of time, this
part of the programme had to be relinquished. No
sooner was the Alexander Nevski anchored in the
inner basin of the port, than the Cronstadt
orthodox clergy, coining on board with singers
and ministrants, celebrated the Panichides again
in the presence of the Emperor, the Princes
and the dignitaries of the realm. The Emperor
then thanked Capt. Fedorovski, the commander of
the ship, and the entire convoy, for the sad and im-
portant service they had rendered him, and, with
the Princes, returned to St. Petersburg on board his
own yacht Strela (Arrow). In the evening the
Alexander Nevski was towed to the merchants' har-
bour. There it lay, decorated with crape and re-
sounding with.the plaintive, monotonous songs of
the Oriental Church, a floating tomb. in the midst
of the waters. The public, who continued pouring
in from St. Petersburg, were admitted to it at all
hours of the day.
On the 6th of June, at an early hour in the morn-
ing, his Majesty arrived with the Imperial family
from Zarskoe Selo (" Kingston") at St. Petersburg,
and at half-past 9 embarked with the Crown Prince
of Denmark, Prince Albert of Prussia, and the male
members of his house for Cronstadt. Meanwhile,
in the capital, the troops, consisting of no less than
33 battalions of infantry, 38 squadrons of cavalry,
and 21 batteries, took up their several stations along
the line of route assigned for the procession ; the
wealthy hurried to the platforms erected in several
parts of the town, and accommodating, it is said,
no less than 10,000 persons, and the million crowded
the streets, thronged in the squares, and a heaving
sea of human units filled every inch of ground from
the Imperial pier to the Cathedral of St. Peter and
Paul. All houses were decorated with crape, all
shops shut, all windows occupied by sympathizing
and curious spectators. The ships in the river
lowered flags and crossed yards, the guns wereheard
booming from afar, and the louder they thundered,
the nearer they approached, the deeper became the
silence of the assembled multitude.
A little after one the Alexandria, with the Empe-
ror, the Imperial suite, and the sarcophagus on
board, entered the Neva. The thousand bells of
St. Petersburg tolled, seconded by minute guns,
and drowned every now and then by the fire
of the citadel. Another hour, and the Imperial
yacht lay alongside the English quay. The funeral
car, and with it the entire procession, had been wait-
ing on the quay and in the neighbouring streets for
several hours ; and when the Emperor with the
Russian and foreign Princes had lifted up the coffin
and borne it ashore and placed it on the car, the
cortege moved on at once, and the ceremony of the
day began, not, however, before the coffin had been
sprinkled with holy water and a short prayer offered
up by the Metropolitan Bishop and his clergy. The
troops presented arms, and the bands, striking up a
jubilant strain, gradually fell into the muffled
sounds and solemn melody of a funeral march.
The order of procession may be thus generally
described :—A squadron of the Ataman Regiment
of Cossacks marched in front. They carried the
Pernatsh or golden mace, the buntshug, or horse-
tailed standard, and the blue flag with the Russian
cross, surrounded by 16 stars, which are the insignia
of their commander-in-chief. Then followed a
master of ceremonies on horseback ; a company of
the Seraenoff regiments of the Guard ; an equerry
on horseback ; the lacqueys and valets of the
Grand
Duke walking three abreast ; the officers
of the Grand Ducal household ; the horse of the
deceased Grand Duke, with the velvet housing
of his Ataman regiment of Cossacks: his escutcheon,
borne aloft by a major-general, assisted by two
colonels ; the grand escutcheon of the realm,
carried by a lieutenant-general, supported by two
major-generals ; a deputation of the University
of Helsingfors, whose chancellor the Czarewitch
was ; a deputation of Cossacks ; the equerries
and officers of the Imperial studs ; the generals,
two abreast ; the Secretaries of State, senators,
ministers, and members of the Grand Council of the
realm, three abreast : a squadron of the Grodno
regiment of Hussars ; the Imperial flag, carried by
a vice-admiral, assisted by two post-captains ; the
25 foreign orders of knighthood conferred upon the
deceased during his lifetime, borne by Actual Coun-
cillors assisted by Councillors of State ; the Russian
orders of Anne, St. Andrew, St. Alexander, and
of the White Eagle, borne by Privy Councillors,
assisted by Actual Councillors of State; a company
of the Preobrashenski Foot Guards ; the cathedral
clergy and singers of the churches of the Holy
Mother of God of Kasan, of St. Isaac, of the Court

Church, &c. ; the Metropolitan Bishop, with the
archdeacons carrying aloft the holy flags and the
candelabra ; the father confessor of the deceased
Prince, with the image of his patron saint ; the
corpse, covered with a black velvet pall, adorned
with silver escutcheons, upon a fuaeral car, drawn
by eight horses and decorated with eight golden
pillars, trophies and heraldic achievements. Four
major-generals and four adjutants-general of his
Imperial Majesty acted as pall-bearers. The car
was driven by the coachman of the deceased Prince,
who will never drive again, but receive a pension
and renounce the exercise of his calling for the re-
maining days of his life. On both sides of the car
marched deputations from the various Russian and
foreign regiments of which the Grand Duke had
held command. Prussians, Austrians, Cossacks,
Dragoons, and Uhlans were here seen walking side
by side, flanked by generals and mixed with pages
bearing torches, and singers chanting hymns. Then
appeared the Emperor on horseback, attended by
the Minister of War and the Minister of the Im-
perial House, the adjutants-general du jour, the
adjutants and aides-de-camp. To the Emperor
the Grand Dukes, and foreign princes, with their
suites, succeeded. Then followed Count Stroganoff,
the military governor of the Grand Duke in his
younger years, with the other Adjutants-General of
the Emperor ; the Court Grenadiers with their flag;
the Grand Duchess Mary with the youngest children
of the Emperor, in a mourning carriage drawn by
eight horses ; the other Grand Duchesses in mourn-
ing carriages drawn by six horses, and escorted by
their equerries, pages, and grooms ; the ladies of
the Court, in mourning carriages, drawn by four
horses ; and the gold sticks, silver sticks, chamber-
lains, and grand officers of the Court, walking two
abreast. A company of the Ismaikff Guards, and
his Majesty's own escort, consisting of the Georgian
nobility squadron, the Circassian horse,theLesghian
horse, and Cossack artillery, brought up the rear.
The procession halted in front of St. Isaac's Ca-
thedral, where prayers were offered up, and the
people, as well as the soldiers, uncovered their heads
on seeing the bishops emerge from the church. The
car arrived at the entrance of the fortress church of
St. Peter and Paul at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and
without further ceremony was deposited in a cata-
falque, and left in charge of a mixed guard of gene-
rals and priests.
At 8 o'clock in the evening the Emperor and the
members of the Imperial family attended the Pani-
chides in the church. Two hours later the bereaved
mother, supported by the Emperor, came to weep
and pray at the coffin of her son.