the princess's conduct has never
transpired, it must be a very good one, or her mother would never
uphold her as she does. Not the slightest blame is attributable to
the princess of Monaco, and her reputation remains utterly above
suspicion.

The station of Monaco is about ten minutes' walk from the town, which
we now see is built upon a lofty rock forming a kind of peninsula
jutting out from the mainland in the shape of a three-cornered hat. It
is about two hundred feet high, and rises almost perpendicularly from
the water on three sides, and that which joins the rest of the coast
is ascended by a winding and steep road which passes under several
very curious old gates and arches, originally belonging to the castle.
The castle crowns the centre of the rock, and is a most romantic
construction, possessing bastions, towers, portcullises, drawbridges
and all the paraphernalia of a genuine mediaeval fortress. It was built
upon the site of a much more ancient edifice in 1542, and is a very
remarkable specimen of the military architecture of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. During the French Revolution it was used as a
hospital for wounded soldiers, and subsequently fell into a state of
pitiable decay. It has, however, been repaired with great taste by the
present prince within the last few years. Internally, it possesses
a magnificent marble staircase and some fine apartments. One long
gallery is said to have been painted in fresco by Michael Angelo, but
it has been so much restored that the original design alone remains.
Another gallery is covered with good pictures by the Genoese artist
Carlone. Five doors open on this latter gallery--one leading to the
private chambers of the prince; another to those of the princess; a
third into a room where the duke of York, brother of George IV., was
carried to die; a fourth to the famous Grimaldi hall; and the fifth
to the room where Lucian Grimaldi was murdered, as already related,
by Bartolomeo Doria. This chamber was walled up immediately after
the crime, and only reopened in 1869, after a lapse of three hundred
years. The Grimaldi hall, or state chamber, is a large square
apartment of good proportions and handsomely decorated. Its chief
attraction is the chimney-piece, one of the finest specimens of
Renaissance domestic architecture now extant. It is very vast, lofty
and deep, constructed of pure white marble and covered with the most
exquisite bas-reliefs imaginable. Unde