minals in the following manner. They are wrapped round both
arms, in the hide of a buffalo fresh taken from the beast, which is
sewed tight. As this dries, it compresses the body to such a degree
that the sufferer is incapable of moving or in any manner helping
himself, and thus miserably perishes.

THE SICILIAN VESPERS

A.D. 1282

MICHELE AMARI[82]

Under Frederic II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Sicily
had been governed wisely. His son Conrad succeeded him as
King of Sicily in 1250, but went to Germany, where his crown
was being contested by William of Holland, leaving his
illegitimate brother Manfred to administer Sicily. Conrad
and his brother Henry died in 1254. Manfred continued to
rule Sicily as regent for his nephew Conradin, son of
Conrad, but in 1258, upon a rumor of Conradin's death,
assumed the crown.

Pope Alexander IV and his successor Urban IV, a Frenchman,
would not recognize Manfred as ruler. Urban offered the
Sicilian crown to a brother of Louis IX of France, Charles,
Count of Anjou, who promised to hold Sicily as a fief of the
holy see. Charles was compelled to conquer his new kingdom,
and with a large army of Frenchmen invaded Sicily. Manfred
was defeated and slain in a sanguinary battle at Grandella,
near Benevento, and Charles soon made himself master of the
kingdom. Young Conradin was still living, but was defeated
at Tagliacozzo in 1268, and was beheaded at Naples by order
of Charles.

The French earned the scarcely veiled hatred of the
Sicilians by their tyranny and cruelties, and a conspiracy
arose to give the crown to Pedro, King of Aragon, who had
married Constance, daughter of Manfred. Charles of Anjou was
not ignorant of the fact that his throne was in danger, nor
was he totally unprepared. The overthrow of the French power
in Sicily, however, was precipitated by an incident at
Palermo on Easter Monday, the 30th of March, 1282, which led
to the wholesale massacre known to history as the "Sicilian
Vespers," because of its commencement at the hour of
vespers.

The Sicilians endured the French yoke--though cursing it--until the
spring of 1282. The military preparations of the King of Aragon were
not yet completed, nor, even if partially known in Sicily, could they
inspire any immediate hope. The people were overa