One little scene, in conclusion, which I witnessed at Vienna, has always remained impressed upon my mind, illustrating as it does the democracy of the Catholic Church, if I may use that expression, and demonstrating the good old emperor’s belief,—­so different from that of Emperor William,—­that in the eyes of the Almighty all men are equal.

It transpired at the funeral of Cardinal Gangelbauer, the popular and universally venerated Archbishop of Vienna.  The obsequies took place in the ancient Cathedral of St. Stephen.  Military and ecclesiastical pomp were combined with the magnificent ceremonial of the Austrian court for the purpose of rendering the last honors to the dead prelate.  The entire metropolitan garrison was under arms, and lined the streets through which the funeral procession passed.  The bells of all the churches in the metropolis were tolling throughout the ceremony, and added to the solemnity of the occasion.  The stately Papal Nuncio performed the funeral service in the most impressive manner, and when he stood on the step of the high altar, and raised his hands aloft to pronounce the absolution, the whole of the vast assemblage bowed down, the wintry sunlight streaming through the rich stained glass windows, falling alike upon the reverently bent head of the monarch, and those of the peasant mourners who stood by his side at the head of the bier.  For the dead cardinal was the son of an old farmer, and his brothers, his sisters, and his nephews, all of them plain, humble peasants of Upper Austria, were kneeling there in their peasant garb with the emperor in their midst, and surrounded by the glittering uniforms of the archdukes, the princes, the generals, cabinet ministers and ambassadors assembled around the coffin.  There was no undue exaltation or timidity on the part of the peasants, no undue condescension or contempt on the part either of emperor or dignitaries for the lowly rank of their fellow mourners.  All seemed thoroughly to realize that they were equal in the face of death, and in the presence of their Creator.

It is only in a metaphorical sense that William can be described as an Anointed of the Lord.  For whereas Francis-Joseph was both anointed and crowned as King of Hungary in 1867, Emperor William has never been the object of either of these ceremonies.  The fact of the matter is that there is a good deal of difference of opinion concerning the dignity of a German emperor; for while William claims that it is identical with the status of the emperors of Austria and Russia, the non-Prussian states of Germany insist that it is merely titular, inasmuch as he has no control or jurisdiction in the various federal states which constitute the empire, such as Bavaria, Saxony and Wuertemberg, each of which has an independent king in nowise subject, but merely allied to the Prussian monarch.