and splendid ceremonial of a state funeral. In this
great and solemn pageant, lasting a week, and extending from Livadia to
St. Petersburg, the Czar and the Prince were constantly together, in the
most intimate relations, at a moment when the former was just
emerging--as yet a young and inexperienced man--into the
responsibilities of perhaps the most difficult position in the world. It
was little wonder if the youthful autocrat of ninety millions took
counsel of his experienced and genial relative, and found in his society
comfort and knowledge and the basis of a lasting friendship. Let Mr. W.
T. Stead in the _Review of Reviews_, of January, 1895, describe the
situation:

It was fortunate for every one that he stood where he did, as no
one outside the Royal Castle could have been to the young Czar what
the Prince was at Livadia, and afterwards. In the long and almost
terrible pilgrimage to the tomb which followed, when the corpse of
the dead Czar was carried in solemn state from the shores of the
Black Sea to the tomb in the Cathedral that stands on the frozen
Neva, the Prince was always at the right hand of the Czar. Alike in
public or in private, the uncle and the nephew stood side by side.
After the first gush of grief had passed, it was impossible but
that thoughts of the relations between the two Empires should not
have crossed the minds of both. These two men share between them
the over lordship of Asia. To the Czar, the north from the Oural
to the far Sagahlien; to the other, the south from the Straits of
Babel Mandeb to Hong Kong. No two men on this planet ever
represented so vast a range of Imperial power as the first mourners
at the bier of Alexander the Third.

At St. Petersburg, the Duke of York joined the mourning group of Royal
personages, and there, on November 26th, the young Czar was married to
his cousin, Princess Alix of Hesse, and a still closer tie of
relationship formed with the Royal House of England. From this time
forward the diplomatic relations of Russia and Great Britain steadily
improved and there has never been any doubt amongst those in a position
to judge that it was very largely due to the close friendship between
the Prince of Wales and his Imperial nephew. In France, and especially
amongst its leading men, His Royal Highness was for long an influential
factor in keeping the wheels of international relatio