The Czar arrived in Dunkirk, as promised, on Wednesday morning,
and was received by President Loubet, who steamed out to meet the Emperor's yacht, the Standart.' The meet- ing was, of course, most cordial, and especial praise is given to the President's manner, which was that of a polished host receiving an honoured guest, but entirely free from the ful- someness so often produced by a sense of social inequality. The bourgeois President, in fact, bore himself as France would
have wished her representative to do. On landing the Emperor was warmly received, though the excessive precautions taken to keep the crowd at a distance rather chilled its enthusiasm and the scene at the lunch, given in a giant marquee, was Of a striking and splendid kinds The speeches, were almost purely formal, but Emperor and President alike laid stress upon the words "our friend and ally," which contain, of course, the essence of the affair. After the lunch the Imperial guests were hurried on by railway to Compiegne, where the palace has been refurnished and changed by lavish expense into a fairy abode; and here on the first day the most notable facts were that although a vast crowd, exceeding, it is said, a hundred thousand persons, had arrived from all France, none but the invites guests even saw their Majesties except through a telescope. The streets were kept clear by soldiers and police. The notes of the reception were, in fact, warmth and splendour, both a little kept down by an undercurrent of uneasiness. On Thurs- day the Czar witnessed the great sham fight and visited the Cathedral at Rheims.
Previous page
