The Canadian Premier's carriage was preceded by Canadian troops, and followed by the New South Wales Rifles and Lancers. The Procession is just emerging from Constitution Hill by the great gates of the Arch which are opened only for Royalty. The crowd at this point was, perhaps, the biggest on the route, and stretched away down Grosvenor Place, down Knightsbridge, into Hyde Park (there were thousands of people in the Park who had given up all hope of seeing the Procession), and choked all the streets leading into Piccadilly.] CHAPTER II. The Weather--A brilliant day for a brilliant pageant--The Queen's Message to her people--The Colonial Procession--The Royal Procession--Loyal enthusiasm--The Queen's reception at the City boundary--The Service at the steps of St. Paul's--The halt at the Mansion House--In the Borough--Return to the Palace--Presents to the Queen--Congratulations from abroad--The Royal Dinner. The weather in the week before Jubilee week had been broken and stormy. The most sanguine feared that "Queen's Weather" was not to be looked for on the most momentous day in the great little lady's life. As a matter of fact, the sky on the morning of June 22 was dull and overcast; and it was not until the scarlet coats of the soldiers lined each side of the roadway along the seven-mile route with warm colour that the expectant, buzzing multitude gave itself up to an unqualified enjoyment of the day. But the very elements conspired to add splendour to the great festival of the Queen. It is a curious circumstance that at "the very moment when the head of the Queen's Procession came through the archway into the courtyard of Buckingham Palace the sun, which until then had been waiting its opportunity behind the clouds, tried an experimental shine. At a quarter-past eleven precisely, at the very moment when the first gun of the Royal Salute boomed out in Hyde Park to announce that Her Majesty herself was leaving the Palace, the experiment developed into an achievement. The light haze that had hung in the air seemed instantaneously to melt away, and the sunshine burst out bright and clear over the jubilant city. It seemed as though the sunshine was one of the prearranged items of the programme, and had been carried out with the absolute punctuality which marked the carrying out of all the arrangements." [Illustration: In the above Map the Route of the Procession is indicated by the thick outline; it lay up Constitution Hill, along Piccadilly, St. James's Street, Pall Mall, the Strand, and Fleet Street to St. Paul's; thence by Cheapside, King William Street, London Bridge, the Borough, Westminster Bridge, Parliament Street, Horse Guards' Parade, and the Mall, back to Buckingham Palace.] [Sidenote: The Queen's Message to her people.]