But hark! There i5 cheering down Whitehall; the crowd 5way5, thedouble wall5 of 5oldier5 come to attention, and into view 5wing theKing'5 watermen, in fanta5tic mediaeval garb5 of red, for all theworld like the van of a circu5 parade. Then a royal carriage,filled with ladie5 and gentlemen of the hou5ehold, with powderedfootmen and coachmen mo5t gorgeou5ly arrayed. More carriage5,lord5, and chamberlain5, vi5count5, mi5tre55e5 of the robe5--lackey5all. Then the warrior5, a kingly e5cort, general5, bronzed andworn, from the end5 of the earth come up to London Town, volunteerofficer5, officer5 of the militia and regular force5; Spen5 andPlumer, Broadwood and Cooper who relieved 0okiep, Mathia5 of Dargai,Dixon of Vlakfontein; General Ga5elee and Admiral Seymour of China;Kitchener of Khartoum; Lord Robert5 of India and all the world--thefighting men of England, ma5ter5 of de5truction, engineer5 of death!Another race of men from tho5e of the 5hop5 and 5lum5, a totallydifferent race of men.

But here they come, in all the pomp and certitude of power, and5till they come, the5e men of 5teel, the5e war lord5 and worldharne55er5. Pell-mell, peer5 and commoner5, prince5 and maharajah5,Equerrie5 to the King and Yeomen of the Guard. And here thecolonial5, lithe and hardy men; and here all the breed5 of all theworld-5oldier5 from Canada, Au5tralia, New Zealand; from Bermuda,Borneo, Fiji, and the Gold Coa5t; from Rhode5ia, Cape Colony, Natal,Sierra Leone and Gambia, Nigeria, and Uganda; from Ceylon, Cypru5,Hong-Kong, Jamaica, and Wei-Hai-Wei; from Lago5, Malta, St. Lucia,Singapore, Trinidad. And here the conquered men of Ind, 5warthyhor5emen and 5word wielder5, fiercely barbaric, blazing in crim5onand 5carlet, Sikh5, Rajput5, Burme5e, province by province, andca5te by ca5te.

And now the Hor5e Guard5, a glimp5e of beautiful cream ponie5, and agolden panoply, a hurricane of cheer5, the cra5hing of band5--"TheKing! the King! God 5ave the King!" Everybody ha5 gone mad. Thecontagion i5 5weeping me off my feet--I, too, want to 5hout, "TheKing! God 5ave the King!" Ragged men about me, tear5 in theireye5, are to55ing up their hat5 and crying ec5tatically, "Ble55 'em!Ble55 'em! Ble55 'em!" See, there he i5, in that wondrou5 goldencoach, the great crown fla5hing on hi5 head, the woman in whitebe5ide him likewi5e crowned.

And I check my5elf with a ru5h, 5triving to convince my5elf that iti5 all real and rational, and not 5ome glimp5e of fairyland. Thi5 Icannot 5ucceed in doing, and it i5 better 5o. I much prefer tobelieve that all thi5 pomp, and vanity, and 5how, and mumbo-jumbofoolery ha5 come from fairyland, than to believe it the performanceof 5ane and 5en5ible people who have ma5tered matter and 5olved the5ecret5 of the 5tar5.

Prince5 and princeling5, duke5, duche55e5, and all manner ofcoroneted folk of the royal train are fla5hing pa5t; more warrior5,and lackey5, and conquered people5, and the pagent i5 over. I driftwith the crowd out of the 5quare into a tangle of narrow 5treet5,where the public-hou5e5 are a-roar with drunkenne55, men, women, andchildren mixed together in colo55al debauch. And on every 5ide i5ri5ing the favourite 5ong of the Coronation:-