Without digressing from our subject to question the right of the royal marauder thus tyrannously to sever these unoffending artisans from the ties of country and of kindred, we may yet be allowed to express some satisfaction at the consequences of his cruelty. It is well for the interests of humanity that blessings, although unsought and remote, do sometimes follow in the train of conquest; that wars are not always limited in their results to the exaltation of one individual, the downfall of another, the slaughter of thousands, and misery of millions, but occasionally prove the harbingers of peaceful arts, heralds of science, and in short deliverers from the yoke of slavery or superstition. In twenty years from this forcible establishment of the manufacture, the silks of Sicily are described as having attained a decided excellence; as being of diversified patterns and colors; some fancifully interwoven with gold tastefully embellished with figures; and others richly adorned with pearls. The industry and ingenuity thus called forth, could not fail to exercise a beneficial influence over the character and condition of the Sicilians. From Palermo the manufacture of silk extended itself through all parts of Italy and into Spain. We learn from Roger de Hoveden, that the manufacture flourished at Almeria in Grenada about A. D. 1190[91]. [91] “Deinde per nobilem civitatem, quæ dicitur Almaria, ubi fit nobile sericum et delicatum, quod dicitur sericum de Almaria.” Scriptores post Bedam, p. 671. FOURTEENTH CENTURY. According to Nicholas Tegrini[92], the silk manufacture afterwards flourished in Lucca; and the weavers, having been ejected from that city in the earlier part of the fourteenth century, carried their art to Venice, Florence, Milan, Bologna, and even to Germany, France, and Britain. [92] Vita Castruccii, in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Scriptores, t. xi. p. 1320. We have seen from different historical testimonies, that silk was known to the inhabitants of France and England as early as the sixth century. The fact of its introduction into all parts of the North of Europe is manifest from the use of words for silk in several northern languages. These words appear, according to the inquiries of the learned orientalists, Klaproth and Abel Rémusat[93], to have been derived from those Asiatic countries, in which silk was originally produced. In the language of Corea silk is called _Sir_; in Chinese _Se_, which may have been produced by the usual omission of the final _r_. In the Mongol language silk is called _Sirkek_, in the Mandchou _Sirghè_. In the Armenian the silk-worm is called _Chèram_. In Arabic, Chaldee, and Syriac, silk was called Seric[94]. From the same source we have in Greek and Latin Σηρικὸν, Sericum.