When life was extinct, all present knelt while Dr. Kögel offered a prayer, concluding with the supplication, “O Lord, have mercy on our royal house, our people, and our country, and in the death of the Emperor may Thy words be fulfilled, ‘I will bless thee, and thou shalt prove a blessing.’ Amen.” The excitement throughout the country at the news of Emperor William’s death was tremendous. Bells were tolled from every church spire, flags hung at half mast or were wrapped in crape, while hundreds of sad-faced people wandered into the churches to pray or seek comfort in the words of the priests. [Illustration: _The Emperor’s deathbed_] On the night of March 11 the earthly remains of the deceased Emperor were taken from the palace to the cathedral, where they were to lie in state. In spite of a heavy wind and snowstorm the Unter den Linden was so thronged with people that progress was impossible, and the police had hard work to keep the way clear, yet the most solemn stillness prevailed. At five minutes before twelve the regular tramp of marching troops was heard and torchbearers were seen issuing from the palace. The soldiers took their places, Colonel von Bredow with a squadron of the body-guard being in charge of the arrangements, and formed a solid wall on both sides of the street from the palace to the cathedral, long crape streamers falling from the plumes on their helmets. At midnight the bells of the cathedral began to toll, and an hour later the head of the procession appeared, advancing slowly between a double line of torches, led by the first division of the body-guard under Colonel von Bredow. Behind these at some distance was a battalion of foot guards, followed by all the Emperor’s servants in a body, including his own coachman, _jäger_, and valet. Then came thirty non-commissioned officers with snow-white plumes, bearing on their shoulders the coffin of the deceased Emperor, covered with a plain black pall. Immediately behind it rode the Crown Prince and Prince Henry, followed by all the generals and foreign military _attachés_, among them Count Moltke. Then another division of mounted body-guards clattered by, and the procession ended in a long line of carriages.