multitude we may name the Zaptiehs
from Cyprus, wearing the Turkish fez and bonnet; the olive-faced Borneo
Dyaks; the Chinese police from Hong Kong, with saucepan-like hats
shading their yellow faces; the Royal Niger Hausses, with their shaved
heads and shining black skins; and other picturesquely attired examples
of the men of varied climes.
Such was the colonial parade, a marvellous display from the "far-thrown"
British realm. It was followed by the home military parade, which
formed a carnival of gorgeous costume and color; scarlet and blue, gold,
white and yellow; shining cuirasses and polished helmets, waving plumes
and glittering tassels; splendid trappings for horses and more splendid
ones for men; horse and foot and batteries of artillery; death-dealing
weapons of every kind; all marching to the stirring music of richly
accoutred bands and under treasured banners for which the men in the
ranks were ready to die.
Led by Captain Ames, the tallest man in the British army, followed by
four of the tallest troopers of the Life Guards,--a regiment of very
tall men--the soldierly procession, as it wound onward under the
propitious sun, seemed like nothing so much as some bright stream of
burnished gold flowing between dark banks of human beings.
The colonial and military parade having passed, there followed that part
of the display to which all this was preliminary, the royal procession,
in which her Majesty the Queen was once more to show her venerable form
to her assembled people. Preceding the gorgeous chariot of the queen,
with its famous eight cream-colored Hanoverian horses, appeared its
military escort, a glittering cavalcade of splendidly uniformed
officers, its chief figures being Lord Wolseley, Commander-in-chief of
the Army, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of
Connaught, the Duke of Westminster, and the Lord Lieutenant of London.
In the escort were also included foreign military and naval dignitaries,
in alphabetical order, beginning with Austria and ending with the United
States, the latter represented by General Nelson A. Miles, in full
uniform and riding a splendid horse. The whole was bewildering in its
variety. From Germany came a deputation of the First Prussian Dragoon
Guards, splendid looking soldiers, sent as a special compliment from the
Kaiser. But most brilliant of all was a group of officers of the
Imperial Service Troops of India, in the most gorgeous of uniforms.
Beh
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