Kaiser William arrived at St. Petersburg on Sunday afternoon, on
the long-promised visit to his faithful 'ally and devoted nephew, Czar Alexander. It is an occasion which gives room for a good deal of thinking. The ceremonial itself, indeed, is a study. At the frontier, Governors, Field-Marshals, and Princes welcome his Majesty ; but before he reaches the capital the Autocrat himself comes forth and accompanies his entry. Then the German Emperor is at once reminded that he is a Russian Colonel, and before he enters the Palace receives the reports for the day of all the regiments of-which he is-commander. The Czar confers upon him the great. military Order of: St. George, and also the Iron Cross of Merit, with the inscription "For valour," and makes him besides a present of a portrait of himself, a sword, and an inkstand of lapis lazuli,—at which point of the proceedings it. la stated that the Emperor was "moved and overwhelmed,"— probably reflecting that one empire remained in Europe the wings of whose eagle needed clipping with the sword, and whose disasters might yet be chronicled in epistles to Empress Augusta, indited with the aid of that very inkstand. Grand Duke Nicholas immediately presented him with the flag of the Kaluga Regiment, with which it would have been characteristic had he removed the traces of his emotion. Next day, Emperor Alexander took his august guest to visit the mausoleum where the dead Czars repose, —a. suggestive attention on the part of the head of a monarchy which is said to be only "limited by assassination "; and after dinner, a tremendous tattoo was beaten by 2,000 drummers ;— whereupon Kaiser William went to bed to dream of Sadowa, Sedan, and, perhaps, of the still bloodier battle that may some day be fought out on the road from Berlin to St. Petersburg.
