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Show A PICTURESQUE FUNERAL. Tle Corpse Knocks for Proxy at the woor of the Vault. . : Of all the vast heritage ofSpamythe One thing which ; she certainly hag left to her is picturesqueness. As we read ' the report of King Alfonso's funeral we are back in the . deeps of the middle ages. At the Escurial, we are told, the procession proces-sion slowly wound up the hill to the monaster-. When the funeral reached the principal door it wa3 closed. The Lord Chamberlain knocked for admittance. admit-tance. 4 - . -; "A voice inside asked : "Who '"wishes i to enter?" The answer given"'J was; 'Alfonso XII.' The doors were then thrown open. No one descended to" the vault except the prior, the minister, of grace and justice and the lord chamberlain. chamber-lain. The coffin was placed on a table in a magnificent black marble vault in which the kings of Spam lie in huge marble tombs all around. The lord chamber-Iain chamber-Iain unlocked the coffin, which was covered with a cloth of gold, raised the glass covering from the King's face, then, after requesting silence, knelt down and shouted three times in the dead monarch's mon-arch's ear : Senor ! Senor !. Senor ! ' He then rose, saying, according to the ritual, 'His Majesty does not answer. Then it is true, the King is dead.' . "He locked the coffin, handed the keys to the prior, and, taking up his wand "of office, broke it in his hand and flung the pieces at the foot of the table." What perfection of mis en Bene ! In what other country of this mddern world is such a function possible? ; The Vatican itself is comparatively prosaicp and even gro-j tesque, in its ceremonial. -As or' our English ceremonies, ever the solemnest, they are mere puppet Bhows compared with this magnificently mounted drama. |