On the ceiling were suspended
three enormous chandeliers, each adorned with fifty large wax
candles, which shed a flood of light through the whole hall, and
reflected themselves a hundred times in their balls and pendants of
rock crystal. In the gallery, fixed on the upper half of one of the
walls of the hall, and splendidly decorated with garlands and
Prussian and Russian flags, sat a band of fifty musicians, who
caused soul-stirring greetings to roll down into the hall, where the
brilliant and numerous crowd of guests, whom the municipal
authorities had invited, were moving up and down; the ladies in the
most magnificent toilets, in the gorgeous splendor of diamonds and
other precious stones, of flowers and laces; the gentlemen in their
gold-embroidered uniforms, their breasts ornamented with orders; but
among them were seen also the dark figures of Lutzow's riflemen, the
plain coats of the citizens, and even some of the peasantry in their
becoming rural costumes. All classes were represented at this great
ball, which the municipal authorities of Breslau gave in honor of
the Emperor of Russia, for these representatives of all classes were
to offer to Alexander the homage of the Prussian people, and to
return thanks to the noble ally of the king for the assistance that
he intended to lend to Prussia.
The emperor and the king, therefore, were received with boundless
enthusiasm when they entered the hall arm in arm, each decorated not
with his own orders, but with those of his ally.
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