Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1901-09-13
AMERICAN GIRL AS ROYAL BRIDE.
Romance of Prince AchiIIe and Virginia
Beauty.

| OC04ty.
The old Episcopal Church in Talla
hassee, Florida, holds within its limit
he simple stones which mark the las
esting place of Prince Acbille Mura
and his American Princess, who, il
the bloom of her youthful beauty wa
known throughout all Eastern Vii
ginia as Katherine Byrd Willis, th
daughter of Col. Byrd Willis, of Will.
Hall, near Fredericksburg. Va, ant
his wife, Mary Lewis, niece of G en-
eral Washington.
When Katherine Willis was lowell
maid of only fifteen Summers, and 8
Virginia belle of renown, she became
the wife of Scotch gentleman, MIR
IGrey, who only survived his marriage
a few months, for Mrs. Grey was left q
widow at the age of sixteen.
A few years afterward her father,
with whom she lived, removed to Flor.
ida and Mrs. Grey became brilliant
leader of an exclusive society circle in
Tallahassee. Here she met Achllle
Murat, the eldest son of Naples exiled
| King.
| Like Caesar, she ''came, saw and
conquered, for Prince Achille fell
madly in love at once and pressed his
suit with all the ardor and devotion of
which he was capable.
For some time his beautiful lady,
who had been accustomed both In Vir-
ginia and Florida to all the homage and
devotion that the sterner sex could
proffer, looked coldly on her foreign
lover, who only won her at last by his
unchanging love and faithfulness in
spite of her coldness and rehuffs.
After their marriage they lived on
their Florida plantation until the
Prince took Nine. Murat to family
gathering of the Bonaparte family in
Europe. Prince Achille bore an extra
ordinary resem blance to the dead EN-
peror and this likeness was commented
on while he and his wife were In Bel
GUM.
When they went to London Nine.
Murat met her husband IS cousin, Louis
Napoleon, who called her cousin
Kate, cOnfided to her his hopes and
ambitions, and in whom she took a
lasting interest.
The Murats returned to America
and the Prince distinguished himself
in the Seminole war. But an illness
contracted during that time weakened
his constitution, and be died in 1S47. |
After this Nine. Murat lived mostly in
Tallahassee, though she had a planta-
tion and two hundred slaves subject |
to her benignant. but able administra-
tion. When Louis Napoleon was made
Emperor of the French she visited him
at the Tuileries, where he gave a State
dinner In her honor.
Her Florida life from this time until |
the breaking out of the civil war, if |
was busy and happy one.
She was largely instrumental in placing
Mt. Vernon in the care of the Mt.
Vernon Association
The civil war impoverished her as it
did many others; in fact, most others
Of her class. In the days of her ad-
versity, however, Louis Napoleon,
then at the zenith of bis success, re-
membered his cousin Kate" and sent
her life annuity of ten thousand dol
ars, in mem ory of the days when she
had hearkened kindly to his castle
building in England, and encouraged
,he hopes which the rest of the world
as mere 'moonshine and mad
nesS."
She crossed the ocean once more to
visit the Emperor and his wife, Eu-
genie, then came back to her home,
where she died the following year. She
was laid to sleep beside Prince Achille
and soon the grass and flowers were
growing green over the graves of the
'oyal pair.