As predicted here, the great romance between Prince William (pictured) and his long-term girlfriend, Kate Middleton, is back on with a vengeance.

The golden couple split up in April after enormous media pressure on Kate, who was almost beseiged in her London home and faced a barrage of attention from paparazzi every time she left for work. The similarities with the young Diana Spencer were too close for comfort for many observers.

However, it appears that the split was genuine at the time and not part of an elaborate charade to take media attention away from Kate. Reports say they have been secretly seeing each other for weeks and that William invited her to a saucy Army party at his barracks in mid June.

An observer at the party is reported as saying, “William was following her around like a lost puppy as she went around the room, chatting away and dancing. In the end, he just grabbed her and took her onto the dancefloor where they started doing some rather close dancing. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other but William didn’t care that people were looking. At about midnight he started kissing and smooching her. His friends were joking they should get a room, and it wasn’t long before William took Kate back to his quarters.”

Although it was William who broke the relationship off, he’s doing the chasing now. A friend says, “William hasn’t stopped pining for Kate since they split up. He keeps saying she’s an amazing girl and the best thing to happen to him. He’s definitely serious about getting back together.”

Kate, though, is said to be showing a little reluctance, asking if this is what she really wants. She’s certainly got the psychological advantage over the lovelorn Prince.

The friend also said, “Kate’s not really a rebound sort of girl and William remained the great love of her life. … she know that if they do get together, there’ll be no turning back. There will have to be an engagement and then marriage.”

With William reported to be leaving the Army in early 2009, what price a summer Royal wedding a few months later?

According to Royal-watching website, Royal Anecdotes, Prince William and Kate Middleton’s surprisingly amicable split in April may have been taken to give themselves some breathing space from the media. A reconciliation may only be a matter of time. If so, this could be turning into one of the great romances.

It seems the couple intend to spend a holiday together at William’s Tea Pot Cottage on the Balmoral estate in August. The Prince is also due to accompany Kate to her cousin’s wedding on July 21. A friend says, “Kate and William will be going to the event together. The plan for the day was agreed before they split up and William is determined he will still go with Kate. He wants to honour that commitment. … [They] still speak all the time and are on very good terms.”

A relationship psychologist is reported as saying, “There is no doubt that William and Kate were extremely close for a long time and you don’t turn something like that off like a dripping tap. Kate has not let any upset show since her split. If she wants him back, she is going about it perfectly.”

The couple met at university and spent nearly five years together. The split-up came as a surprise to many as an engagement and summer wedding seemed to be on the cards towards the end of last year.

What happens to the ring when things go sour and the engagement is broken off? Surprisingly, it depends on where you live.

In the United States, the ring is considered a conditional gift; if the marriage is canceled, the ring must be returned. Irish law holds the same view of the situation. But in Britain, the return of the ring is only enforced if there was a prior agreement by the parties to do so in case of breaking up. In Canada, it depends on who breaks it off, if the bride cancels, she must return it but if the groom backs out, he forfeits his claim to the ring.

A recent court case in Australia ruled that the bride having refused the marriage offer, no longer retained rights to the gift but that it became bailed property. Thus, when Vikie Pappas as bailee, ordered her father to throw out everything her former fiance had given her including the ring, she improperly and unlawfully disposed of bailed property.

Probably the wedding with the greatest number of ill omens was that of Amadeo, the Duke D’Aosta of Italy, to Princess Maria del Pozzo della Cisterno in 1867. It is hard to imagine a longer list of catastrophes.

The wardrobe mistress hanged herself and, for some unknown reason, the palace gatekeeper cut his own throat (no small feat in itself). Then the colonel leading the wedding procession collapsed from heat exhaustion and the king’s aide fell from his horse and died from his wounds.

After the wedding, a stationmaster was crushed to death under the wheels of the honeymoon train. And, presumably in despair at all these goings on, the best man shot himself. It sounds as though suicide was all the rage in Italy at the time.

You would think that all this might augur badly for the future of the couple and so it proved. The Princess soon found that her new husband had an eye for the ladies and little idea of fidelity; her complaints to the king were ignored, it being suggested that the behavior of the Prince was no business of hers.

In 1870, Amadeo was elected king of Spain, only to find himself without popular support and unable to prevent uprisings by various political factions. He abdicated in 1873 and went back to Italy. Poor Maria della Cisterna died in 1876, perhaps worn out by the Prince’s turbulent lifestyle.