The first was on the 21st of September, in the Church of St. Cruz,
on the occasion of celebrating the anniversary of the patron saint
of the country. Early in the morning several hundred soldiers were
drawn up before the church, with an excellent band, which played a
number of lively airs. Between ten and eleven, the military and
civil officers began gradually to arrive, the subordinate ones, as I
was told, coming first. On their entrance into the church, a
brownish-red silk cloak, which concealed the whole of the uniform,
was presented to each. Every time that another of a higher rank
appeared, all those already in the church rose from their seats, and
advancing towards the new comer as far as the church door,
accompanied him respectfully to his place. The emperor and his wife
arrived the last of all. The emperor is extremely young--not quite
one and twenty--but six feet tall, and very corpulent; his features
are those of the Hapsburg-Lothering family. The empress, a
Neapolitan princess, is small and slim, and forms a strange contrast
when standing beside the athletic figure of her husband.
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