[5] The embroidered skullcap of Constance of Aragon, wife of Frederick II, in the sacristy of the Cathedral at Palermo, is made of gold thread thickly studded with pearls and jewels--rough sapphires and carbuncles, among which may be noted a red cornelian engraved in Arabic with this sentence, “In Christ, God, I put my hope.” [6] Matteo of Ajello induced William to found an archbishopric at Monreale in order to spite his rival Offamilio. [7] Nearly all cities have their own distinctive colour. That of Venice is a pearly white, suggestive of every hue in delicate abeyance, and that of Florence is a sober brown. Palermo displays a rich yellow ochre passing at the deepest into orange, and at the lightest into primrose. This is the tone of the soil, of sun-stained marble, and of the rough ashlar masonry of the chief buildings. Palermo has none of the glaring whiteness of Naples, nor yet of that parti-coloured gradation of tints, which adds gaiety to the grandeur of Genoa. [8] Of these numerous versions of the story, made in 1635, one is in English, one in Lowland Scotch, containing all the peculiarities of diction with which every one is so familiar from the nearly contemporary conversations of King James I, in _The Fortunes of Nigel_; showing clearly that at that time these two dialects of English were regarded as two distinct languages, each unintelligible to the speaker of the other. [9] See an elaborate and conclusive Essay on the origin of the story of the Holy House of Loretto, which appeared in the _Christian Remembrancer_, April, 1855. [10] The pictures at Ara Cœli and Sta. Maria Maggiore both claim to be that carried by St. Gregory in this procession. The song of the angels is annually commemorated on St. Mark’s Day, when the clergy pass by in procession to St. Peter’s, and the Franciscans of Ara Cœli and the canons of Sta. Maria Maggiore, halting here, chaunt the antiphon, _Regina cœli, lætare_. [11] By Jacopo Turrita, the restorer of the mosaic. [12] 1602. [13] 1260. Transcriber’s Notes: 1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently. 2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the original. 3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original. 4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.