Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1913-08-16

tallahassee, lne CdpiIoi VI
Florida. was for some years
the home of Prince Napoleon
IG Achille Murat. son OF joachim
Murat, whom Napoleon mace
king of Naples. The prince and MS
wife were buried in the Episcopal
cemetery of the town, and VISITORS 10
Tallahassee may still see their graves
and also the house in which the
princess lived before her marriage,
with her parents, Col. and Mrs Byro
Willis. The plantation OF Prince
Achille is near by, a portrait OF the
prince and a photograph OF the prin,
cess are in the public library. anu
many white haired men and women
are still living who remember the III
teresting, strangely assorted but deVol-
ed couple.
Among those who remember the
princess with peculiar affection is
Fanny Taylor, a very old negro
woman, the daughter OF Patsy Lee
who was the personal maid of kather-
ine Willis in Virginia before she went
TO Florida and was still her maid after
her marriage.
Patsy, with several other former
slaves, was remembered in the will OF
the princess, and Patsy's daughter still
lives in cabin near Bellevue, wnlch
was the last home of the princess.
The cabin is new, but is on the site OF
the former cottage, in which were re-
Gently burned many historic and beau
tiful pieces of Murat furniture, be-
cause, as Fanny expressed 1t, there
was no mankind about to put out the
fire." The cabin is as clean as pin,
in honor perhaps of the fact that In
1t are gifts from royalty.
Fanny showed recent visitor with
modest but evident pride two silver
teaspoons, three forks and an old
fashioned twisted gold brooch given
to her mother by Princess Murat.
From a wash cloth of finest birdseye
linen hemmed with almost invisible
stitches, and the last one ever used
by the princess. Fanny unfolded two
locks of gray hair, one Of the mistress
and one of the maid. The last and
most cherished possession displayed
was a small photograph of the princess
taken during the latter years of her
life.
OF both the prince and princess
their former slave remembers many
interesting incidents. One of these
was the well known anecdote of how
during an absence of the princess the
prince dyed all the household linen.
the, lingerie of the princess and every
dress that the servants did not hide
from him a vivid pink. The dye used.
tradition says, was pokeberry juice.
On another occasion he invited a
Tallahassee friend to stay for dinner,
urging the fact that he had killed a
turkey buzzard" and was having 1t
cooked. A sawdust pudding was an
other of the odd culinary conceits re-
membered against him.
Nothing could have been more roy
ally brilliant than the princes first
20 years nor more democratically dull
than the last 20 years of his life.
He was six years old when Napoleon
udot JOdCulIu WI VI dt hlus VI INdpicb,
and as the heir to the throne little
Achille was known as the prince royal
of the Two Sicilies and with his young
er brother, Lucien. spent a pampered
childhood at the court which his IA
Their and mother established.
When Achille was fourteen years
old his father and Napoleon became
estranged, and at this most inoppor-
tune time the king of Naples also lost
the loyalty Of his Italian subjects. In
an effort to regain his power by force
he was captured and executed and his
wife and sons we're sent as prisoners
TO Austria
1t was after several years Of wan
behring's over Europe that Prince
Murat drifted to America at the age
Of twenty, and 1t was in Florida that
he spent most Of the remainder of his
short life. When Colonel Murat, as he
vas called by most of his American
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