The cry echoed through the length and breadth of Sicily, and every French man, woman, and child in the island was massacred; the insult was wiped out in seas of blood! Palermo, or Panormus, never amounted to much in the old Greek time when Syracuse was mistress of Sicily. It’s so alive now, because, like Rome, it has lived a long life and is still vigorous. Its greatness really began when, in the ninth century of our era, the Saracens came, saw, and conquered the island and made Palermo their capital. First the Saracen, then the Norman, last the Spaniard, have held and loved Palermo; these three have ruled her, made her what she is, left their mark upon her. We have already seen the Moor’s vivifying touch, in the springs that murmur, the fountains that dance, in the earth still bright with flower and fruit he planted, rich with the wheat he watered! The Normans! Their conquest of Sicily is just as remarkable, quite as romantic as their [Illustration: PALERMO. TOWER OF THE MARTORANA. _Page 391._] [Illustration: WATER CARRIERS, TAORMINA.] [Illustration: PALERMO, CHURCH OF THE MARTORANA. _Page 391._] [Illustration: PALERMO. CAPELLA PALATINA. _Page 392._] conquest of England. We know comparatively little about it, because we have not the same keen interest in what befell Sicily as in all that happened to mother England, but for their contemporaries there must have been little to choose between the importance of William the Conqueror and his strong breed, and those twelve stout sons of old Tancred de Hauteville who, from the condition of Norman squires of Cotentin, became in one generation, kings of Sicily, the richest island of the Mediterranean. The Battle of Hastings took place in 1066; in 1061 Robert Guiscard, and his brother Roger, the Great Count, sons of old Tancred, conquered Sicily and made Palermo their capital. What have the Normans left behind them? A great art: Churches, cloisters, mosaics, tombs, monuments worthy to stand on the island of the Greek temples, still reckoned among the wonders of the world. Our first days in Palermo were mild and cloudy--good sightseeing weather; on the golden days that followed it would have been hard to remain indoors, even within such splendid interiors as the cathedral of Monreale and the church of the Martorana. We went first to the Capella Palatina in the royal palace, the finest royal chapel in Europe. A certain stately order, an aristocratic atmosphere, recalled the chapel royal in Madrid, probably because we were more familiar with that than any other. The Capella Palatina is far handsomer and as different from the Madrid chapel as possible. The walls are entirely covered with fine gold mosaics, the floor with rich marble mosaic, porphyry, serpentine, Africano, cipolino, verde antique, all our favorite marbles, inlaid and enlaced in the most entrancing patterns. “All this marble must have come from the Greek temples and the Roman palaces,” Patsy reminded me.