The Queen was happy not only in the circumstances but
in the place of her death, for, as the Sovereign of the greatest naval Power, it was only fitting that her Fleet should escort her on the way to her grave. This duty was carried out yesterday afternoon, when the body of the Queen was brought from Cowes to Portsmouth. Shortly before two o'clock the coffin was borne from Osborne House by her Majesty's Highlanders, placed on a gun-carriage drawn by eight horses, and followed by the King, Emperor, and Princes, Queen and Princesses on foot, taken to Trinity Pier, and thence conveyed on board the Royal yacht ' Alberta.' The spectacle in the Solent was singularly impressive, the ' Alberta,' accompanied by the Victoria and Albert' and the Osborne,' steaming slowly across between a magnificent double line of battleships, firing minute guns during the passage of the Royal yachts. The western fleet, entirely composed of British war vessels, numbered thirty, while at the Portsmouth end of the eastern and smaller fleet were stationed the foreign ships of war, Germany sending a squadron of four, France being repre- sented by one of her finest battleships, the 'Duprey de Lame,' snd Japan and Portugal by one each. The weather, though cold, was bright and clear, and nothing was wanting to render the solemn pageant worthy of the illustrious dead in whose honour it was arranged.
