2-996-013 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Revolution in Sicily - massacre of people by the royal troops at the Convent of the White Benedictines at Palermo, from a sketch by Frank Vizetelly, 1860. '...our Special Artist at Palermo... writes: "On Tuesday, May 29, the troops collected all the people in the neighbourhood, and shut them up in this convent. It was then set fire to, and as the poor wretches attempted to escape the troops fired on them, and drove them with the bayonet back into the burning pile. When the ruins were searched 130 bodies of men, women, and children were found: these I saw with my own eyes. I was in the neighbourhood of the place while the massacre was going on, and the shrieks of the unhappy creatures could be heard above the rattle of musketry."...the Royal troops opposed to this misnamed "brigand," [General Garibaldi] the protectors, avowedly, of "law, order, and justice," showed themselves [in] every way worthy of the cruel tyranny which they strove to uphold, and committed the most frightful excesses... the soldiers set fire with torches to all the houses, and the conflagration was so violent that of houses extending a length of 100 yards only the walls now remain'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.