Suspense has ended for the excavators in Egypt and the watchers in the two hemispheres.

Never before has the civilised world followed, or been able as now to follow, step by step, immediately upon the heels of discovery... Now it is certain that in breaking through the sealed wall Lord Carnarvon and Mr Carter have broken the seal of a historical document quite unparalleled. Hope is not satisfied, but exceeded.

It must be months before the whole meaning of the crowning discovery is deciphered and known. It is certain to set inquiry coursing along new channels in every direction. But the first glimpse has told us what we needed to know, that this is, indeed, the tomb of the King, and that it has escaped rifling at the hands of the tomb robbers.

The Royal mummy lies there, with the splendour and profusion of his funeral furnishings intact around him – a sight to which the eyes and imagination of our drab age must take time to accustom themselves.

Key quote

“I have had enough of revolutions.”

Maxim Gorky on why he won’t travel to Central Europe

Talking Point

In consequence of the public economies, the horses at the former Court stables have to go. The white horse used by the ex-Emperor Karl at the Budapest coronation led a very quiet life here… except to appear occasionally at the State Opera, where it was a favourite… especially as Grane, in Wagner’s Dusk of the Gods, in which role it always behaved with admirable patience, despite the flames and the collapse of Valhalla at the close.

The Observer reports on a Viennese horse with a history