a
princess of their house to a wandering exile like myself.
Upon which I stated that I should apply to you and induce you
to advocate my cause, and become security for my principles
and fidelity to those to whom I promised allegiance. 'Ah,'
replied the queen, 'if you can obtain the advocacy of that
angel, it will, indeed, be impossible to refuse you any
thing.' I should like, dear mother, to give you a faithful
portrait of the princess, who was destined to be my bride,
even before her birth. But I feel that I could make but an
indifferent and very unworthy sketch. She possesses many
amiable and elevated qualities, which I shall take the
liberty of summing up in one brief sentence, by assuring you
that she seems to be a perfect model of my mother."

Soon after this the duchess embarked in an English frigate for
Palermo, and reached there in safety on the 15th of October, 1809.
Thus, after long, long years of separation, the survivors of the
exiled family, though still in exile, were reunited. On the 25th of
November the nuptial benediction was pronounced in the beautiful old
Norman chapel of the Palazzo Reale.

"The most remarkable and curious fact connected with the origin and
structure of the Capella Reale is, that to the completion of this
most perfect illustration of the art of ecclesiastic building three
nations have contributed--the Greeks, Saracens, and Normans. And by
this fortuitous association the chaste style of the ancients, the
cold manner of the Northerns, and the luxurious fashion of the East
are all here blended in perfect harmony."[K]

[Footnote K: Wright's Shores and Islands of the Mediterranean.]

General Cass, the American minister to France, who, thirty years
after these events, wrote from the palace of the Tuileries, where
Louis Philippe and his amiable queen were then enthroned, says:

"The queen was the daughter of that King of Naples who was
driven from his Continental dominions by the French, and took
refuge, with his family and court, in Sicily. Here the king,
Louis Philippe, then poor and in exile, married her; and the
match is understood to have been one of affection on both
sides. The thirtieth anniversary of their union has just
expired, and they are at the summit of human power, with a
most interesting family of seven children, and, as is known
to every body, with the warmest attachment to each o