Next came twelve beautiful white mules, magnificently housed, and led by pages dressed in a scarlet uniform: a present to the Princess from her Imperial Father. Nine carriages of silver net-work, roofed and draperied with coloured silk, each drawn by four bay horses, followed next in line; and through the transparent lattices glittered the costly sofa-furniture of tissue and embroidery; the velvet cushions, and the golden fringes which were to adorn the saloons of the bridal Palace. After these came three open droskys, with pages running at the bridle-rein of the superb leaders, who seemed impatient of the pace at which they travelled, and scattered the foam from their mouths as they champed their embossed bits; and these were overlaid with cloths of crimson velvet fringed with gold, on which was displayed a collection of richly-chased silver plate. Then followed five other carriages, drawn like the foregoing by four stately horses, containing trunks covered with coloured velvets and gold and silver stuffs, and clamped and hinged with wrought silver, laden with the linen of the Imperial Bride. Next came forward what, at the first glance, seen as it was through the cloud of dust raised by the carriages, seemed to be a moving tulip-bed, extending far as the eye could reach. Nor was the illusion an overstrained one; for this portion of the procession proved to be a train of one hundred and fifty men, each attended by a page, and bearing upon his head a basket of wicker-work, covered with gold tissue, and surmounted by a raised dome of coloured gauze, decorated with bunches of artificial flowers. Beneath these transparent screens might be seen the toilette of the young Princess; her golden ewers, and jewel-studded basins—her diamond-covered essence-boxes, and gemmed water-vases—her glittering porcelain, her emerald-mounted hair-brushes—and all the costly gauds which litter so magnificently the chambers of the great. Golden cages, filled with stuffed birds—inlaid caskets, heavy with perfumes—musical instruments, rich with laboured gold and jewels—salvers, upheaped with gold coins—and ten thousand brilliant toys, if not without a name, yet almost without a use, followed in their turn; and then came pyramids of sweetmeats, glittering like fruits which had suddenly been hardened into gems; and trays of shawls, each one a fortune in itself, enveloped separately in wrappers of coloured gauze, tied with long loops of ribbon.