Million-Dollar Nuptials

Prince Henri, Count of Paris and Dauphin of France, married a Princess of Brazil in Italy last week--such at least was the way in which thousands of enthusiastic Royalists thought of the bright, expensive pageant which passed over a great carpet 200 yards long across Palermo's Cathedral Square.

The bride was beautiful, her name euphonious Isabelle, Princess of Orleans-Braganza, descendant of the Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil. For this tall, dark-eyed graceful girl the Royalist ladies of Lyons, France, had embroidered with silver palm leaves a gown of shimmering satin designed by Jean Charles Worth, most chipper of Parisian grands couturiers, who hops about and chirps:

"This exquisite new fabric, Madame-- if I had shown it to you last year you would have said 'Why, Mr. Worth, you are perfectly a fool!"

Two gentlemen supported the trailing bridal veil of antique Brussels lace, priceless and some 20 feet long. Instead of a wreath, Princess Isabelle wore a bridal circlet of diamonds. Carrying a missal instead of a bouquet, and leaning on the arm of her father Prince Pierre, she led the royal procession in which walked 54 princes and princesses.

"Vive le Roil Vive la France!" cried a throng of French and Brazilian Royalists, some of them poor people who had come all the way to Palermo at great personal sacrifice. "Vive le Dauphin! Vive la Princesse!"

Le Roi (who paid for the pageant) is that very rich man, with estates in Belgium, Italy and Morocco, who is better known as Monseigneur le Due de Guise. As the father of the bridegroom, Le Roi fixed his thoughts last week on 1809. In that year, in this same Cathedral of Palermo, his ancestor Louis Philippe (then an exile like the Count of Paris today) married a Bourbon Princess and later became King of France (1830-48). Does history never repeat?

Fifty harps twanged Mendelssohn's "Wedding March." Imposing, the Cathedral of Palermo had been hung with rich tapestries, decked with carloads of flowers and on view was the Cathedral treasure: a sacred stole blazing with Byzantine gems which once studded the mantle of the Empress Constantia. But as he knelt at the altar beside Princess Isabelle last week the Count of Paris was garbed in a mere cutaway, his richest ornament a gardenia.

Up to the last minute, suspense had been terrific lest Achille Ambrogio Damiano Ratti, Pope Pius XI should forbid Luigi Cardinal Lavitriano, Archbishop of Palermo, to officiate. Well the Holy Father knew that at this wedding there would be present those two accursed agitators for the Royalist cause in France, Editor Leon Daudet of L'Action Franc,aise and his doughty fellow editor, Charles Maurras. If they were present as guests, declared the Supreme Pontiff in his final ultimatum to Monseigneur le Due de Guise, then no Cardinal could possibly officiate.

For this reason accursed Mm. Daudet & Maurras came not as guests but as reporters, slyly laughed up their Royalist sleeves at Luigi Cardinal Lavitriano who performed the ceremony, imparted a nuptial blessing and celebrated low mass while Princess Isabelle quietly wept.

Twang, twang went the 50 harps again, and out of the Cathedral paced Bridegroom & Bride to be greeted in astounding fashion by the Royalist crowd. On their knees men and women begged to kiss, kissed "the hands of the future King & Queen of France." Others kissed the hem of Princess Isabelle's 20-ft. bridal veil. Palermo fairly whooped with excitement when the Count of Paris signed the bridal register, using the same gold pen with which Louis Philippe signed in 1809.

Followed a champagne wedding break fast at Orleans Palace, the same in which Louis Philippe skulked while one Napoleon called himself Emperor of the French. In five huge pavilions 1.040 guests sat down. Camelots du Roi, youths of bluest-blooded French families (who sometimes hawk L'Action Franc,aise on the streets of Paris) were in their element at last, sported Royalist buttons as though the wedding breakfast were a convention. Toasts flew merrily among a roster of guests which might have been torn from the program of an operetta: the Duke of Magenta; Prince & Princess Christopher of Greece; Prince Adam Czartoryski of Poland (at whose chateau the couple first met); the Infante Carlos (representing the King of Spain); the Danish sportsmen-princes Aage, Viggo and Erik; Count della Faille de Leverghem (representing Albert, King of the Belgians); ex-Queen Amelie of Portugal; Prince Philippe of Hesse (representing his father-in-law King Vittorio Emanuele of Italy) and Ambassador Sir Ronald William Graham, representing George V.

To his bride, who is also his third cousin, the Count of Paris gave two pearl necklaces, two diamond diadems and much other Bourbon jewelry. Other wedding gifts, it was estimated, approached a total value of $500,000. Grand total expenses of all concerned certainly exceeded $1,000,000. According to announcements, Bride & Bridegroom, after a short honeymoon, will visit formally all the Courts of Europe at which they can anticipate a friendly reception, commencing almost certainly with Spain.

The Italian Court, although most friendly, took a standoffish attitude last week for fear of offending the French Republic. But Crown Prince Umberto of Italy sent a jeweled wedding gift. In France, from which the Count of Paris is permanently exiled, comment was at a minimum.

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