The scene which followed the conclusion of the religions ser-
vice appears to have taken the vast assembly quite by surprise. The Queen returned the salutation of the Prince of Wales by a kiss, and then embraced all the Princes and Princesses of her family, except the Crown Prince of Prussia and the Grand Duke of Hesse, who had retired after the more formal saluta- tion, but who were recalled by the Queen to share the expression of her motherly tenderness. All this was done with so much dignity and sweetness, that it gave to the grand ceremonial an air of reality and personal feeling which added vastly to its beauty without detracting from its grandeur, and then, after exchanging a gracious farewell with the foreign Princes present, the Queen left the building to the music of Mendelesohn's "March of the Priests" in Athalie. Was that oratorio selected for the sake of the violent contrast between the Queen-mother of that piece and the Queen-mother of this P
