t.
Seeking his chamber, he found Nina and Irene waiting for him. His heart
yearned to his wife. Care and toil had of late driven her from his
thoughts, and he felt it remorsefully, as he gazed upon her noble face,
softened by the solicitude of untiring and anxious love.

"Sweetest," said he, winding his arms around her tenderly; "thy lips
never chide me, but thine eyes sometimes do! We have been apart too
long. Brighter days dawn upon us, when I shall have leisure to thank
thee for all thy care. And you, my fair sister, you smile on me!--ah,
you have heard that your lover, ere this, is released by the cession of
Palestrina, and tomorrow's sun will see him at your feet. Despite all
the cares of the day, I remembered thee, my Irene, and sent a messenger
to bring back the blush to that pale cheek. Come, come, we shall be
happy again!" And with that domestic fondness common to him, when
harsher thoughts permitted, he sate himself beside the two persons
dearest to his hearth and heart.

"So happy--if we could have many hours like this!" murmured Nina,
sinking on his breast. "Yet sometimes I wish--"

"And I too," interrupted Rienzi; "for I read thy woman's thought--I too
sometimes wish that fate had placed us in the lowlier valleys of
life! But it may come yet! Irene wedded to Adrian--Rome married to
Liberty--and then, Nina, methinks you and I would find some quiet
hermitage, and talk over old gauds and triumphs, as of a summer's dream.
Beautiful, kiss me! Couldst thou resign these pomps?"

"For a desert with thee, Cola!"

"Let me reflect," resumed Rienzi; "is not today the seventh of October?
Yes! on the seventh, be it noted, my foes yielded to my power! Seven! my
fated number, whether ominous of good or evil! Seven months did I reign
as Tribune--seven (There was the lapse of one year between the release
of Rienzi from Avignon, and his triumphal return to Rome: a year chiefly
spent in the campaign of Albornoz.) years was I absent as an exile;
tomorrow, that sees me without an enemy, completes my seventh week of
return!"

"And seven was the number of the crowns the Roman Convents and the Roman
Council awarded thee, after the ceremony which gave thee the knighthood
of the Santo Spirito!" (This superstition had an excuse in strange
historical coincidences; and the number seven was indeed to Rienzi what
the 3rd of September was to Cromwell. The ceremony of the seven
crowns which he received after his knighthood, on the na