After the trays wuz emptied, the palace guard, in full uniform, come in with twelve more trays, and so on till four courses wuz served, the last consistin' of a sweet dish, fruit, cheese, almonds, etc. After this, and it wuz done quite quick, for not a mouthful wuz eaten, a large, gold tray wuz brought in with a gold pitcher on it and a large napkin, and the Emperor knelt and poured a little water on the old man's foot, and wiped it on the napkin. It wuzn't very dirty, I spoze; his folks had tended to that, and got off the worst of it. But he had had his foot washed by a Emperor, and I spoze he felt his oats more or less, as the sayin' is in rural districts, though he orten't to, seein' it wuz a religious ceremony to inculcate humility, and the old man ort to felt it too, as well as the Emperor. But howsumever, the hull twelve on 'em had their feet washed and wiped by nobility. And that bein' done, the Emperor, Crown Prince, and all the arch dukes, etc., havin' riz up from their knees, the Grand Chamberlain poured some water on the Emperor's hands, who dried 'em on a napkin, and all the rest of the nobility done the same. Then a court officer come in bringin' twelve black bags of money containing each thirty silver florins. They had long black cords attached, and the Emperor fastened the bags around the necks of each of the old men by putting the cords round their necks. Then the Emperor and nobility left the hall. All durin' this ceremony a priest and twenty assistants read and intoned beautiful extracts from the Gospel, showin' how the Lord washed the disciples' feet. Then all the food and plates and foot cushions wuz packed into baskets and sent to the houses of these old men, and I wuz glad to hear that, for I thought how they must have felt to have such tasty food put before 'em and took away agin for good and all. When the Empress wuz alive she did the same to twelve old wimmen--good creetur! Wuzn't it discouragin' to wash the feet of the poorer classes every year of her life, and then be shot down by one on 'em? How Fritz must have felt a-thinkin' on't! If he'd been revengeful, I felt that he might have gin their feet a real vicious rub--kinder dug into 'em real savage; but he didn't; he washed and wiped 'em honorable, from what I've hearn. I always thought that that wuz a noble thing for the Emperor to do. I d'no as our presidents would be willin' to do it, and I d'no as they wouldn't. I don't believe the question has ever been put to 'em. I guess Washington and Lincoln would anyway, and I don't believe that they would have shrunk back if the feet wuz real dirty; they went through worse things than that.