THE KAISERINE. 497 



amazons career along the sward, upon thorough- 

 breds of a beauty and caste rarely seen out of " the 

 Row." My companion pointed out to me so many 

 celebrities and dignities of " blue blood," that I 

 began to imagine half the Gothaischer genealo- 

 gischer in the Hof Kalender were present. 



A lifting of hats, accompanied by a demon- 

 strative greeting, announces the presence of some 

 distinguished personage; and in an open ba- 

 rouche, accompanied by a lady of the household, 

 and followed by two equerries on horseback, is the 

 Kaiserine of Austria, in my opinion the most beau- 

 tiful woman amongst the royalty of Europe, except, 

 perhaps, her sister, the ex-Queen of Naples, a 

 heroine in every sense of the word, who would 

 never have lost her throne had its defenders pos- 

 sessed but one-half her courage. Two officers in 

 the simple, but elegant, undress of the Austrian 

 army, followed by a single orderly, ride slowly 

 along, evidently so engrossed in intense thought, 

 that they seemed unconscious of the homage that 

 is shown to them on all sides. It is the Emperor 

 Francis Joseph, and the Archduke Albrecht, the 

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