family, making no secret of her continued intimacy with them, and with equal frankness to them of her relations with him. She wrote to the Queen Marie Amélie an account of her going to the Chapel and of the Emperor taking her there, and received a very amiable reply. The first thing she did on her return was to receive the Duc and Duchesse de Montpensier. Clarendon told me a few things besides of no great importance, and which I am not sure that I recollect: about Spain, he said that matters were going on better there and the Government had contrived to get money--the Spaniards were very anxious to take part in the war, but he had discouraged it entirely. As to Naples, that we were calling the Neapolitan Government to account for their recent impertinence to us, but that Palmerston and he had disagreed as to what should be done, Palmerston, according to his old habit, wanting to send ships of war to Naples and to proceed to violence, while he was opposed to having another Pacifico affair on our hands, and proposed to proceed with caution and quietly. MARRIAGES OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. While they were in the yacht, crossing over, Prince Albert had told him that there was not a word of truth in the prevailing report and belief that the young Prince of Prussia and the Princess Royal were _fiancés_, that nothing had ever passed between the parents on the subject, and that the union never would take place unless the children should become attached to each other. There would be no mere political marriage. The Prince showed Clarendon all the correspondence which had taken place between the Emperor of Russia and the Prince Regent about the Holy Alliance, which he said was very curious, and George IV.'s letter declining to be a party to it very good indeed. These documents were left in Lord Liverpool's papers, and fell into the hands of Harcourt, who married his daughter. Harcourt lent them to the Prince to read, but exacting a promise that he would not take a copy of them, and he had since repeatedly pressed the Prince to return them. I told Clarendon they ought not to be returned, or at least that Harcourt ought to be desired to give them to be preserved in the Government Archives, for they can in no way be considered as private property. Lord Liverpool's papers were for the most part destroyed, but these were preserved. This is all I can recollect of what he told me. [Footnote 1: The final bombardment of Sebastopol commenced on the morning of September 5th, and continued without intermission until the 8th, when the Russians blew up their magazines and in the night evacuated the southern portion of the city. The intelligence of the fall of Sebastopol reached England on the afternoon of Monday, September 10, and was received with great enthusiasm throughout the country.]