238 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



Emperor of Germany ; conspicuous among all, he stood 

 forth as an embodiment of majestic manhood. Sad it 

 is, indeed, to think of what civilisation and liberty lost 

 in his untimely death. What that loss was to Germany 

 one may judge by the touching and high-minded 

 proclamation with which he inaugurated his brief reign 

 as Kaiser. 



The Diamond Jubilee celebration of 1897 was of a 

 different character. Of this I was also a witness. 

 The Queen, accompanied by a whole number of Royal 

 and illustrious personages, passed through the crowded 

 streets from Buckingham Palace to St. Paul's. 



On the occasion of the funeral of Queen Victoria I 

 received an invitation, as Vice-Chancellor of the 

 University, to be present in St. George's Chapel, 

 Windsor. This again was a heart-stirring ceremony, 

 and when the coffin entered the Chapel borne on the 

 shoulders of her gallant soldiers, a feeling of thankful- 

 ness must have been uppermost in the breasts of all 

 that we had lived in the Victorian era, under the 

 beneficent rule of our great and good Queen. It was 

 a singular circumstance that even the small Chapel 

 was not filled with mourners. Undoubtedly " some- 

 one had blundered." On entering the Chapel I was 

 placed in a somewhat remote position, the lower seats 

 being reserved for the great people who never came, 

 so that just before the entrance of the procession I 

 and others were requested to come down and take up 

 the vacant seats. On this occasion the most interest- 

 ing figure, next to that of our own King, was that of 

 the son of the man of whom I have been speaking, 

 namely, the Emperor William, whose devoted affection 

 to his grandmother was one of the most touching 

 circumstances in a sorrowful time. 



"La Reine est morte, vive le Roi /" Once more I 



