Sicilian Vespers

noun

a general massacre of the French in Sicily by the local population, begun at the sound of the vesper bell on Easter Monday, 1282.

Sicilian Vespers

functioning as singular a revolt in 1282 against French rule in Sicily, in which the ringing of the vesper bells on Easter Monday served as the signal to massacre and drive out the French

Then we have the dominion of the French, ending with the Sicilian Vespers, and the death of eight thousand of them.

The Scots, to whose influence every untoward occurrence was imputed, were threatened with a repetition of the Sicilian Vespers.

If the massacre called the Sicilian Vespers had been infernal, it would have been going on now!

It is a pendant, of course quite unhistorical, to one of the traditions of the Sicilian Vespers.

But even more than the Sicilian Vespers, it was the unpremeditated, irresistible act of a people sick of being slaves.

April 24, 2024gallimaufry

[gal-uh-maw-free ]

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