(40)Legions of Britons jammed London streets Saturday for a last collective cry, mourning their young princess through the night and lining funeral routes to glimpse her final journey home to the land of her ancestors.
``She was human. She was so human,'' said Ross McLelland-Taylor. He drove three hours with his wife and two sons to visit Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived and where her body spent its final night before burial later Saturday.
(41)For days, unprecedented crowds have flooded The Mall and its Buckingham and St. James's palaces. The masses grew as word spread about the huge, winding line to sign official condolence books for Diana, 36.
Throughout Friday night and early Saturday, people from all over Britain began claiming their spaces along the route of Diana's funeral procession.
(42)``We decided on Wednesday we had be here today,'' said 40-year-old Gary Finnimore early Saturday. He came from Looe, in southwest England, to London to find a spot near Hyde Park Corner with his friend Nicola Rundle.
``People didn't realize just what they had until they lost it,'' said Finnimore, referring to Diana.
``Some people said we were mad coming but I know it was worth the journey,'' Rundle said.
(43)Up to 6 million people were expected to crowd along the 3 1/2-mile (5 1/2-km) funeral procession route Saturday. Thousands more streamed toward roadsides from London to Althorp, the Spencer estate, where Diana will be interred.
Crowds in the drizzle outside Kensington Gardens were so heavy Friday night that police barred visitors from leaving through the central gate. People stood 100 deep in some places.
Police on closed off the thousands-strong condolence-book queue outside St. James's, where Diana's body lay at the Chapel Royal. They promised to reopen it after the services.
(44)Thousands of camera flashes illuminated a wet London night outside St. James's as a black Daimler carried Diana's coffin, draped with the Royal Standard flag, from the chapel to Kensington Palace on Friday night. The body was moved so the funeral route could be extended to accommodate crowds.
Princes William and Harry followed in a limousine with their father, Prince Charles. Each looked straight ahead, not at the crowd, which was 10-deep along The Mall and had swelled to 50,000 at Buckingham Palace. Some tossed flower petals or applauded gently as Diana's hearse passed.
(45)Joanne Rootes, a social worker from Brighton, stood outside St. James's with her daughter and 2-year-old granddaughter in rapidly increasing rain and vowed to stay. ``We've come this far,'' she said. We're not going home now.''
Earlier in the day, Charles, flanked by his sons, inspected flowers outside Kensington Palace and mingled briefly with onlookers, who extended hands and bouquets in solidarity. Smiling shyly, the boys accepted the offerings and placed them at the foot of the palace gate.
(46)Queen Elizabeth II was certainly cognizant of the crowds. In her broadcast speech Friday, she spoke against the backdrop of a Buckingham Palace balcony, throngs of mourners clearly visible in the Mall beyond.
At Harrods, the famous department store owned by Mohamed al-Fayed_ father of Diana's boyfriend Dodi Fayed, who died with her in a Paris car crash Sunday _ nearly 1,000 people waited to sign joint condolence books for the couple.
(47)Diana rested early Saturday inside a darkened Kensington Palace, its perimeter ringed with individual points of candlelight held by those keeping a final nighttime vigil for the woman they called, over and over, the ``Queen of Hearts'' _ a title she suggested for herself in a famous interview.
``She meant a great deal _ her natural side, her love for sick people, blind people, black people. Color meant nothing to her. She showed the world how to live together,'' said Julia Kuevi, a Ghanaian standing in the rain with her husband and daughter.
``Now Mother Teresa has died,'' she said. ``If there's a heaven, they're up there walking hand in hand.''