ON THEIR WAY!

A splendid Prince, his beautiful Princess, a carriage, a crowd: fantasy come to life, a dream riding in stately progress through London. Except that this moment and the ones that came before and after were real, for all to observe. The millions upon millions everywhere who chose to do so discovered that seeing is believing. From the fireworks that etched the sky on the evening before last week's royal wedding to the tumultuous departure from a train station the next afternoon, a ceremonial vision was stunningly conveyed through a pageant of colors and forms. The old seemed polished by happiness and the new burnished by tradition.

Breastplates glistened and the flanks of superbly groomed horses shone in the morning sunlight. Guardsmen's jackets seemed redder than they had any right to be. St. Paul's Cathedral tapered up into the sky like an exaltation in stone. Remarkably close to schedule, the families of the bride and groom arrived, giving everyone else a chance to imagine a life free of traffic. Envy was out of the question, silenced by the uncommon presence of an ideal.

In her white dress and long train, the bride looked like an opulently petaled flower. Under the vaulting dome, she and the Prince leaned toward each other and exchanged a whisper: a small gesture that harmonized perfectly with the vast silence around them. Outside, the crowds thronged all the way from the cathedral to the palace. They were worth watching because they were not only spectators but part of the spectacle, a kaleidoscopic sea of red, white and blue periscopes, Union Jacks, bobbing faces full of excitement and pleasure.

It all seemed larger than life, but in truth was something much more miraculous: life itself magnified, given the amplitude that the spirit needs to move with grace. The couple at the center of all this attention performed impeccably, as everyone expected; but equally impressive were the thousands who worked in the background: these ranged from bobbies and choirboys to the Queen herself, who took an unaccustomed supporting role in the triumphant return to Buckingham Palace. As the photographs on the following pages show, all the effort was worth it. An ancient community affirmed its future.

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