ty, which in the present day is in great part divided by walls and
dotted with gardens; while a square enclosure of moderate size, shaded
by dusky cypresses, honeycombed with tombs, and adorned with urns and
other sepulchral monuments, surrounds the church. This is a public
cemetery, laid out toward the end of the eighteenth century, and
fearfully filled in three weeks by the dire pestilence which
devastated Sicily in 1837. On the Tuesday following Easter, at the
hour of vespers, religion and custom drew crowds of people to this
cheerful plain, then carpeted with the flowers of spring. Citizens,
wending their way toward the church, divided into numerous groups.
They walked, sat in clusters, spread the tables, or danced upon the
grass; and--whether it were a defect or a merit of the Sicilian
character--threw off, for the moment, the recollection of their
sufferings.

Suddenly the followers of the Justiciary appeared among them, and
every bosom thrilled with a shudder of disgust. The strangers came
with their usual insolent demeanor, as they said, to maintain
tranquillity; and for this purpose they mingled with the groups,
joined in the dances, and familiarly accosted the women; pressing the
hand of one, taking unwarranted liberties with others; addressing
indecent words and gestures to those more distant, until some
temperately admonished them to depart, in God's name, without
insulting the women; and others murmured angrily; but the hot-blooded
youths raised their voices so fiercely that the soldiers said to one
another, "These insolent paterini must be armed, that they dare thus
to answer," and replied to them with the most offensive insults,
insisting, with great insolence, on searching them for arms, and even
here and there striking them with sticks or thongs. Every heart
already throbbed fiercely on either side, when a young woman, of
singular beauty and of modest and dignified deportment, appeared with
her husband and relations, bending her steps toward the church.
Drouet, a Frenchman, impelled either by insolence or license,
approached her as if to examine her for concealed weapons; seized her
and searched her bosom. She fell fainting into her husband's arms,
who, in a voice almost choked with rage, exclaimed, "Death, death to
the French!" At the same moment a youth burst from the crowd which had
gathered round them, sprang upon Drouet, disarmed and slew him; and
probably, at the same moment, paid the penalty by