the vesper bells were ringing, and thus the massacre that followed, although without the slightest premeditation, has ever been known by the name of Sicilian Vespers. nobles, and foreshadow to them the pos- At this very moment, most fortuitously, sibility of an invasion on the part of Don Pedro. If so, he must have been exposed to great dangers. The tradition says -and it is probable-that, once, he only escaped suspicion by feigning madness. In the mean time, the somber despair of the Sicilians was on the ascendant. Their rage was concentrated, but fermenting. Charles' fury, on the other hand, was boundless, as he was approaching the time he thought favorable for his undertaking into the East. He did not know where to turn, or upon whom he could vent his fierce yearning for blood and victims. He threatened to exterminate the whole race of Sicilians. A reign of terror commenced. No Sicilian was permitted to have any arms of whatever kind in his possession. The searching for them became another vexatious outrage of every moment. The moment of Drouet's death became the commencement of a frightful confusion. The Palermitans, maddened by a long relentless oppression, carried on the massacre of the French with a rapid fury. The Sicilian women who had married Frenchmen, were butchered, because they had been sullied by the abhorred foe, and in order to avenge a national treason. But when the vengeance was glutted, and the slaughter over, the people cooled, awoke to a sense of what they had done, and began to fear the consequences of this terrible explosion. An assembly was convoked. The word Republic was pronounced by a majority, and a happy Republic was installed under the protection of the Pope and of the Holy Church. But this insurrection did not spread rapidly in the island. Messina was a month before joining the movement. At last, on the 28th of April, the cry of "Death to the French!" resounded in the city, and was followed by the massacre of the French. Messina also declared itself a Republic under the protection of the Church. The news of these events fell like a thunderbolt on Charles of Anjou. His frenzy verged on insanity. He collected all his forces against Messina, intending to make of this city a terrible and memorable example. But the defense of the Messinians was heroie. The women fought by the side of the men. It was a struggle for life and death. The assaults of Charles' army were all repulsed with immense slaughter on both sides. The issue might, nevertheless, have been fatal to Messina, but Charles, hearing of the movements and approach of the Arragonese fleet, hesitated some time, sent conditions of submis A lovely valley fills the distance between Palermo and Monreale. It form erly extended considerably towards the wild declivity of the Monte Pellegrino. Shaded luxuriantly with orange trees, jasmines, and mulberries, and interspersed with exquisite grassy slopes, it was the most favorite resort of the Palermitans. On Easter Monday, (30th March, 1282,) the Palermitan population crowded on that beautiful spot, as usual every year, after the religious ceremonies of the morning. A bright sun, myriads of flowers bursting through the thick grass, the blossoms of orange trees that perfumed the atmosphere, all the splendors of an eastern spring, seemed to invite the multitude to breathe and smile. The general gloom soon appeared as if dispelled. But the French came also: they mixed freely with the groups, unconscious of the hatred they inspired wherever they appeared. Their presence was like gall, or some infernal apparition, among the Sicilians. It seems that some of these unwelcome strangers outstepped the limits of gallantry with the women, and were re-sion to the city, which were rejected, and pelled with vivacity by the young men. The French, easily incensed, began to search for arms. A threatening, general silence succeeded to the partial merriness that had preceded. All hearts were beating. A Provençal, named Drouet, not content with searching the men to find whether any arms were concealed, assailed a female in the same manner. Drouet fell down, struck dead with a poniard. after having relaxed, resumed the siege. In the mean time, Don Pedro received deputations from the Sicilian cities, inviting him to accept the Sicilian crown. He accepted, landed at Trapani, and his entrance in Palermo was a scene of delirious rejoicings. Succors were immediately sent to Messina, and the heroic city was delivered. Charles d'Anjou withdrew, inwardly burning with his baffled blood thirsty fury. A new dynasty and a new | fourteenth century. On that day the domination now commenced for Sicily and the Sicilians. This Roman people, roused from their former Another episode of Italian history, affected by the research and publication of original documents, is that which refers to Rienzi. The German historian, Papencordt-thanks to his recent researches inade in Rome-has been the first to restore to Rienzi his real mystical character. We have seen in Rome a variety of records, chronicles of that period, speeches of the Tribune, many of which It is not our object to relate the history were then and have since been published, of Rienzi. It is romantic enough in realand all tend to exhibit in him the mystic ity without the fictions of the novelist, as well as the antiquary. No former his- however elegantly wrought. Rienzi soon torians have ever perceived, known, or became celebrated for his knowledge of understood the mysticism of Rienzi. Colà antiquarian lore. Crowds followed him Rienzi was the son of an innkeeper. His either to the tombs of the Christian mother was a washerwoman. Petrarch martyrs or to every ruin and vestige of says that he was handsome, elegant in his Pagan Rome. Many of his discourses on demeanor, of a delicate complexion, with those occasions have been recovered, and something fantastical in his eyes and they are all as mystical as archæological. smile; that he was endowed with remark- He preached on the history of Rome, on able powers of persuasive eloquence and justice, on faith, to a breathless multitude. an exquisitely harmonious voice. Edu- The popular emotion grew deeper every cated by an uncle, who was a priest at day, and shed on its author a new and Anagni, Rienzi evinced a prodigious facil- dignified lustre. The Roman people, ity in his studies of Latin, rhetoric, after a movement of hostility against the grammar, theology. His education was nobles, appointed new magistrates and semi-profane, semi-sacred. He was deep-resolved to send ambassadors to pray for ly versed in all the Latin writers, never- the Pontiff's return to Rome. Rienzi theless, his letters and speeches abound in quotations from the Bible and the Fathers. When he returned to his parents, his humble dwelling was at the foot of the Capitol. His enthusiastic imagination became daily more impressed with the marvelous ruins of Pagan Rome and the wonders of Christian Rome. He was surrounded by the contrast of the profane blended every where and in every thing with the sacred. The Eternal City was then without the Pope or any regular government. The nobles and barons, well quartered in their castles, were the masters of the city; but what masters! Petrarch describes them to have been a band of coarse, profligate highway robbers. Rome was becoming relatively deserted; and, in order to revive the city, to dazzle and amuse the multitude, several of the noble senators imagined to have recourse to a literary pageantry. The poetical triumph of Petrarch, at Rome, on Easter Sunday, (8th April, 1341,) is well known. This triumph was the expression, we may say, of the literary and intellectual revival of the formed part of the embassy, and Petrarch united with him, in the hope of persuading the Pope. But their efforts were useless, and on this occasion Rienzi addressed to the Romans a most enthusiastic, mystical letter, which is one of the mediæval curiosities. On his return to Rome, Rienzi was appointed apostolic notary in the municipal council. His system of attacks on the nobles and of defense of the people led to his being struck down by one of the Colonnas. That filled the measure of his hatred. It is at this period that he commenced to address the people with the aid of theatrical representations of his oratory. They were frescoes hastily sketched on a wall, representing great allegorical pictures, the details of which initiate faithfully to the mystical imagination and eloquence of the Tribune. In one of these scenes he stated solemnly his having been-he, frail creature-selected by the Holy Ghost, at the intercession of St. Peter and St. Paul, to restore justice in Rome. Finally, on the 20th of May, 1347, day of the Pentecost, Rienzi convoked the people at the mystical aberrations, interspersed with beautiful effusions of a noble and tender soul. In 1351, however, the Archbishop was obliged to send his prisoner to Rome, where Rienzi underwent a trial at the Pontifical Court, and was condemned to death; but this court was at Avignon, the Land of Poetry and of the Troubadors-the center of European Literature. The Avignonese could not permit a scholar and a poet to be executed. They protested, not without menace. The Pope graciously pardoned Rienzi, who remained in custody, receiving every testimony of munificent interest. Two years after, Roman anarchy and disorder having attained a scandalous extent, Rienzi became, in the Pontifical hands, an instrument of reform. His exultation was Capitol. He had heard thirty masses] addressed to the good Archbishop form during the preceding night. He appear- the strangest combination of genius with ed armed, bare-headed, and proposed with majestic solemnity the new regulations of his new government, il buono stato, which he read aloud. The buono stato was proclaimed with vociferous acclamations by the multitude. The barons and nobles fled from the city. Rienzi remained master of Rome, and the details of his government are most curious and deeply interesting. The whole of Europe was astounded. A general belief arose in the resurrection of a new formidable republican Rome. The Pope acknowledged the new Tribune, who, at the same time, received from Petrarch the most eloquent congratulations. The other Italian cities forwarded to him the warmest felicitations, with pecuniary succors. But such a triumph inflamed the imagination of Rienzi. He became delirious. The boundless when sent to Rome with the people shared his aberrations. Insane and mystical ceremonies, abounding in symbols, now took place daily. Finally the Pope sent a legate to put an end to the follies of the Tribune and excommunicated him. The barons assembled an army, marched on Rome, but failed in a first attempt to surprise the city; the people remained faithful, and might have repelled the enemy, had not the mystic, the enthusiast, with his generous ideas, succumbed under a simple question of food. Rome was threatened with a famine; the people immediately cooled This is the second epoch in the life of towards the excommunicated Tribune; Rienzi. The generous, mystical idealist they remained deaf to his voice and of former days had now grown coarse, insensible to his tears. Rienzi disap-sensual, heartless, and cruel. His transpeared. Subsequently he sought a refuge in the convent of Mayella, after having wandered in the solitudes of the Abbruzzi. It appears that during his sojourn in the convent, he fell into constant ecstasies and the most mystical, ambitious reveries. In 1350 Rienzi proceeded to Prague, threw himself at the feet of the Emperor, and addressed him in a mystical, incoherent harangue. He excited the curiosity of Charles IV., who, nevertheless, gave orders to deliver up the excommunicated rebel to the Pontiff. Fortunately for Rienzi, the Archbishop of Prague took him under his protection in a true Christian spirit, kept him nominally a prisoner, and endeavored to soothe his ardent and feeble imagination. The mass of letters and memoirs which the prisoner title of Senator; but he soon found that he was considered as a mere instrumenta mere tool in the hands of the legate. His vanity and ambition being deeply ruffled, he associated with a celebrated condottiere, and obliged the Pontifical agents to withdraw or yield. Now, after seven years' exile, he reëntered Rome with imperial pageantry and splendor. The Roman people received enthusiastically their Tribune, whom they soon discovered to have undergone great changes, both physically and morally. formation was complete. The treasury was empty in a few days, and unable to keep his engagement with the condottiere, Monreale, the latter was treacherously executed. He then had recourse to taxation. The people murmured. Rienzi had become ridiculous or odious. Drowned in luxuries and sensualities, he was finally roused one morning by the cries of "Death to the Tribune!" The furious multitude invaded his palace and set fire to it. In the mean time the trembling object of so much fury took a disguise to insure his flight. Being recog nized, he shrunk, paused, and fell under deep sword-thrusts. The murderers did not strike him down, without having long hesitated, and gazed on those features formerly illumined by the purest enthusiasm-the noblest aspirations-and now distorted by sensuality and terror, a | They exhibit great sagacity-great clevsad example of the fatal powerlessness of erness on the part of Morone and others imagination in human affairs when it is devoid of practical intelligence and determination! - great rhetorical powers-but evince no signs of unity of action. Morone was persuaded that he had gained over to his cause Pescara, the greatest of the Emperor's generals, whose services had not met with the merited recompense. But the great General proved a traitor to Morone and his cause. Now, the Italians, however unprepared for it, found themselves, of necessity, brought to an open_war. The various corps being dispersed, carried on partial coups de main. When the chiefs met or communicated with each other, they persevered in a total absence of unity and harmony. The cities remained isolated. The hesitations of the Pontiff remained a great impediment. In the mean time the generals of Charles V. were displaying great skill-great precision in their movements and unity of purpose. Finally, the Pope beheld the tempest that was gathering, not only over Italy, but over Rome and his own person. There only now remained for him, either complete submission or a desperate resistance. Both were equally repugnant to his feelings, and he continued in his hesitations. An episode, far more terrible, of the History of Italy, was the sack of Rome, in 1527, by the troops of the most Christian Emperor Charles V. The correspondence we have alluded to reveals the truth as to his participation in this great stigma of the sixteenth century. This sixteenth century, during which Italy shone so splendidly by her artistic and literary genius, was fatal to the independence of the fair Peninsula. By the victory of Pavia, Italy seemed condemned to pass under the Germanic domination. The Emperor's armies-or, rather, his motley bands of barbarians-were scattered over the most important points of Lombardy and Tuscany, incessantly devouring and ravaging without mercy. The Italians and the Italian princes beheld the impending fate that awaited them. They manifested a momentary inspiration-a powerful flash of national genius-in the resolution of delivering their country of the imperial hordes. But, instead of acting unanimously energetically-in broad day-light-they During all the misunderstandings and conspired again. Instead of a national waverings, the famished, imperial army of movement, and of a war to the death, barbarians, headed by the Constable of they had recourse to cabinet intrigues- Bourbon, was advancing rapidly. No to a very equivocal diplomacy-to partial means now existed to ward off the storm. secret meetings-in order to prepare a If we open the letters addressed by sudden, unexpected explosion. Hence Charles V. to his generals, we see that the horrible catastrophe in which savage Rome was condemned by him to be sackbands of Spaniards, Swiss, Germans-law-ed, and that his subsequent protestations less and faithless-thirsting for blood, lust, were all falsehood and hypocrisy. He and plunder-sacked, during many weeks, writes to Lannoy, that he will get nothe metropolis of the fine arts and of thing from these people (the Court of Christianity, far exceeding any thing re- Rome) without thrashing them well. He corded in history of the Goths and Van- urges Bourbon to hasten on-to spare no dals. Morone, Chancellor and Minister one-and, once for all, to put an end to of the Duke of Milan, was the originator every thing. The Constable and his and the soul of the conspiracy. He asso- 35,000 men fell on the Eternal City like a ciated the Pope and all the Italian princes fearful combination of avalanches. The to his views; and there was every appear- defense hastily prepared, is vividly relatance of a formidable league being formed ed by Benvenuto Cellini. The Spaniards against the approaching reckless tyranny and Germans, greedy of plunder, rushed of Charles. However, long hesitation en- on the walls; they had no artillery, and sued misunderstandings, as usual-dis- must either perish or succeed in a sudden appointed pretensions-whilst the Pontiff, storming of the city. The besieged Clement VII., evinced a strong desire to fought valiantly; but a thick fog falling insure the happiness of Italy, and, at the on the scene of slaughter, rendered the same time, to avoid the effusion of blood. Roman artillery useless and favored the All the documents and threads of this barbarians, who penetrated, from differwidely-spread plot are extremely curious. ent quarters, into the Eternal City. And then commenced the long work of murder and of refined cruelties hideous, bloody scenes of an unheard-of duration, and that have no parallel in history. the population; nevertheless, a new tax on fruit was proclaimed on the 1st January, 1647. The people manifested their discontent in various street-scenes, by vociferations and pasquinades, in which the fisherman, Thomas Aniello, was a leader. He was notorious among all by his handsome person, his constant merriness, and jokes; but his wife, having endeavored to smuggle some flour into the town, she was roughly treated, thrown into prison, and condemned to a fine of a hundred ducats. Masaniello sold all he possessed to redeem her. The young couple were ruined. From that day the fisherman underwent a complete transformation. He became somber, mysterious, bitter, and threatening in his language. His wrath and hatred exploded day and night among the motley groups of the people. He became the head and soul of the malcontents. He soon put himself in communication, indiscriminately, with every faction of nobles, clergy, even banditti. The fourth and last of those episodes in Italian history we have alluded to, is the insurrection of Masaniello in 1648-49, contemporary with the Fronde and the execution of Charles I. The Duke of Rivas having discovered some very remarkable documents on that period, has made a most judicious use of them in the work he has published on the subject. Here, again, romances, dramatic scenes, operas, and hasty historians, writing without a sufficient knowledge of the original sources, had singularly disfigured the coarse, ignorant but generous fisherman, and the events that caused his apparition as well as those that followed it. Masaniello, as well as Rienzi, was an enthusiast, but without mysticism, idealism, and aspirations. His enthusiasm was purely patriotic. Being roused from his peaceful occupation of fisherman by the Spanish persecutions, he found himself sudden- The Neapolitans, naturally indolent, do ly and unexpectedly master of Naples. not seem to require more for existence His energy and uprightness proved suffi- than their splendid sun, the deep blue cient for mere physical contentions and vault of heaven, along with the fruits of struggles, but he became powerless when the earth for their food. When the burnarose the necessity of checking the revo- ing summer came, they found themselves lutionary multitude, and insuring, at the almost deprived of the latter by the new same time, to his country, the fruits of tax. The Sunday, 7th of July, was a victory. As soon as his position became popular festival. The heat was intense. complicated, his total want of experience The poor people were yearning for fruits, and common-sense became evident. He but they were too dear. Some peasants then, like Rienzi, but from a very differ- coming up with baskets filled with the ent cause, commenced a series of venge- freshest supply, the temptation was too ance and cruelties. Every difficulty ap-great. Several efforts were made to purpeared to him a treason. All pure enthusiasm had fled from him, and his heart failing, he lost his reason. There appeared, some fifteen years ago, in Italy, a little book entitled, "Narrative of the Twenty-seven Insurrections of the very faithful city of Naples." If the great number of these revolts, is a testimony of the petulant, explosive nature of the Neapolitan population, it is, undoubtedly, an equal testimony of the misconduct and of the excesses of the governments that succeeded each other. The Duke of Arcos had been appointed Spanish Viceroy of Naples in 1646. The Spanish treasury was exhausted in consequence of the war with France. Naples was already subjected to enormous imposts and extortions. Threatening murmurs and groans could be heard from every class of The chase them; but the tax-gatherers were |