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 OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE 219 historian of the times ^^^ has delineated the misfortunes of his counti*y : ^''*' the ambition and fall of the ungrateful Majo ; the revolt and punishment of his assassins ; the imprisonment and deliverance of the king himself; the private feuds that arose from the public confusion ; and the various forms of calamity and discord which afflicted Palermo, the island, and the conti- nent, during the reign of William the First, and the minority of his son. The youth, innocence, and beauty of William the wuiiam n., Second ^^^ endeared him to the nation : the factions were recon- ad iiee.May Y A r 1 1SQ ciled ; the laAvs were revived ; and, from the manhood to the pre-Nov.'is mature death of that amiable prince, Sicily enjoyed a short season of peace, justice, and happiness, whose value was enhanced by the remembrance of the past and the dread of futurity. The legitimate male posterity of Tancred of Hauteville was extinct in the person of the second William ; but his aunt, the daughter of Roger, had mai-ried the most powerful prince of the age ; and Henry the Sixth, the son of Frederic Barbarossa, descended from the Alps, to claim the Imperial crown and the inheritance of his wife. Against the unanimous wish of a free people, this inherit- ance could only be acquired by arms ; and I am pleased to trans- cribe the style and sense of the historian Falcandus, who writes at the moment and on the spot, with the feelings of a patriot, and the prophetic eye of a statesman. "Constantia, the daughter of Lamentation Sicilv, nursed from her cradle in the pleasures and plenty, and toiian rai- •" ^ r ^ ' candus 1*5 The Historia Sicula of Hugo Falcandus, which properly extends from 1154 to 1 169, is inserted in the viith volume of Muiatori's Collection (torn. vii. p. 259- 344), and preceded bv an eloquent preface or epistle (p. 251-258) de Calamitatibus SiciliK?. [Re-edited by Del Re in Cronisti e scrittori sincroni napoletani, 1845.] Falcandus has been styled the Tacitus of Sicily ; and, after a just but immense abatement, from the first to the twelfth century, from a senator to a monk, I would not strip him of his title : his narrative is rapid and perspicuous, his style bold and elegant, his observation keen ; he had studied mankind, and feels like a man. I can only regret the narrow and barren field on which his labours have been cast. [Cp. App. I. For the history of Sicily from the accession of William the Bad to 1 177 see F. Holzach, Die auswiirtige Pohtik des Konigreichs Sicilien 1154-1177 (1892).] I-*'' The laborious Benedictines (I'Art de verifier les Dates, p. 896) are of opinion that the true name of Falcandus is Fulcandus, or Foucault. According to them, Hugues Foucault, a Frenchman by birth, and at length abbot of St. Denys, had followed into Sicily his patron Stephen de la Perche, uncle to the mother of William II. archbishop of Palermo, and great chancellor of the kingdom. Yet Falcandus has all the feelings of a Sicilian ; and the title of Alummis (which he bestows on himself) nppears to indicate that he was born, or at least educated, in the island. [See Appendix i.] !•*' P'alcand. p. 303. Richard de St. Germane begins his history from the death and praises of William II. After some unmeaning epithets, he thus continues : Legis ct justitise cultus tempore stio vigebat in regno ; sua erat quilibet sortc con- tentus (were they mortals ?) ; ubique pax, ubique securitas, ncc latronum metuebat viato;- insidias, nee maris nauta offendicula piratarum (Script. Rerum Ital. tom, vii. p. 969).