Another interesting incident in this connection may be found in the friendship known to have existed between the Prince of Wales and the Czar of Russia. Nicholas II. bore the same relationship of nephew to him that was borne by William II. and, like the other Imperial ruler, came to bear a similar feeling of respect and regard for his uncle--sentiments not always felt between relations, royal or otherwise. It was on August 31st, 1894, that the Princess of Wales received a despatch from her sister, the Czarina, that Alexander III. was nearing his end in the far-away Palace of Livadia. As rapidly as train and ship could carry them the Royal couple travelled to Russia, but only in time for the prolonged and splendid ceremonial of a state funeral. In this great and solemn pageant, lasting a week, and extending from Livadia to St. Petersburg, the Czar and the Prince were constantly together, in the most intimate relations, at a moment when the former was just emerging--as yet a young and inexperienced man--into the responsibilities of perhaps the most difficult position in the world. It was little wonder if the youthful autocrat of ninety millions took counsel of his experienced and genial relative, and found in his society comfort and knowledge and the basis of a lasting friendship. Let Mr. W. T. Stead in the _Review of Reviews_, of January, 1895, describe the situation: It was fortunate for every one that he stood where he did, as no one outside the Royal Castle could have been to the young Czar what the Prince was at Livadia, and afterwards. In the long and almost terrible pilgrimage to the tomb which followed, when the corpse of the dead Czar was carried in solemn state from the shores of the Black Sea to the tomb in the Cathedral that stands on the frozen Neva, the Prince was always at the right hand of the Czar. Alike in public or in private, the uncle and the nephew stood side by side. After the first gush of grief had passed, it was impossible but that thoughts of the relations between the two Empires should not have crossed the minds of both. These two men share between them the over lordship of Asia. To the Czar, the north from the Oural to the far Sagahlien; to the other, the south from the Straits of Babel Mandeb to Hong Kong. No two men on this planet ever represented so vast a range of Imperial power as the first mourners at the bier of Alexander the Third.