The Empress of Russia was wrapped in a large coat of green velvet lined with ermine; on her head she wore a toque of the same colour with an aigrette of diamonds similar to that usually worn by the great Catherine. The other ladies were equally provided against the cold with velvet coats of the richest colours; the Grande-Duchesse de Weimar’s being pink, also trimmed with ermine, a fur which in Austria is exclusively reserved for personages of royal blood. The other colours such as purple and amaranth were all relieved by the rarest and most elegant furs. Then came the other sledges, to the number of thirty, holding the principal Court personages and the princely guests for whom this entertainment had been projected. The procession crossed the city at only a walking pace, thus enabling the crowd to recognise and to salute those who in a little while will be carried away at a gallop. The Archeduc Palatine has by his side the Grande-Duchesse d’Oldenbourg wrapped in a blue velvet mantle, the shade of which blends most happily with her charming face. Behind these the Prince Royal of Würtemberg has for his companion the Princesse de Lichtenstein. Handsome though his companion is, he does not take his eyes off the sleigh containing the woman he worships, and he looks as if inclined to quarrel with fate for having served him so niggardly. Our charming ‘queen,’ as we call the Comtesse Fuchs, has fallen to the lot of the Prince Guillaume de Prusse. The Prince Léopold de Sicile is with the Princesse Lubomirska, the Prince Eugène with Mme. Apponyi, the Prince Royal de Bavière with the Comtesse Sophie Zichy, the Archeduc Charles with the Comtesse Esterhazy, the Prince Auguste de Prusse with the Comtesse Batthyany, the Comte François Zichy with Lady Castlereagh, the Comte de Wurbna with the Comtesse Walluzen, the Duc de Saxe-Cobourg with the handsome Rosalie Rzewuska. The dresses of all those ladies were elegant beyond description; the men wore Polish coats trimmed with the most beautiful fur. After that followed a squadron of grooms wearing the imperial livery; then the procession was closed by several reserve sleighs and another huge six-horsed sledge carrying a band dressed in Turkish uniforms and playing warlike tunes. After having slowly traversed the principal streets of Vienna, the procession ranges itself in two lines, and at a signal the horses start at a gallop on the road to Schönbrunn.