er a People may be made to resemble the bravo whose hand wanders to
his knife at the smallest affront, and if today he poniards the enemy
who assaults him, tomorrow he strikes the friend who would restrain.)
The People write their own condemnation whenever they use characters
of blood; and theirs alone the madness and the crime, if they crown a
tyrant or butcher a victim.

Appendix II. A Word Upon the Work by Pere du Cerceau and Pere Brumoy,

Entitled "Conjuration de Nicolas Gabrini, Dit de Rienzi, Tyran de Rome."

Shortly after the Romance of "Rienzi" first appeared, a translation
of the biography compiled by Cerceau and Brumoy was published by Mr.
Whittaker. The translator, in a short and courteous advertisement,
observes, "That it has always been considered as a work of authority;
and even Gibbon appears to have relied on it without further research:
(Here, however, he does injustice to Gibbon.)...that, "as a record of
facts, therefore, the work will, it is presumed, be acceptable to the
public." The translator has fulfilled his duty with accuracy, elegance,
and spirit,--and he must forgive me, if, in justice to History and
Rienzi, I point out a very few from amongst a great many reasons, why
the joint labour of the two worthy Jesuits cannot be considered either a
work of authority, or a record of facts. The translator observes in his
preface, "that the general outline (of Du Cerceau's work) was probably
furnished by an Italian life written by a contemporary of Rienzi." The
fact, however, is, that Du Cerceau's book is little more than a wretched
paraphrase of that very Italian life mentioned by the translator,--full
of blunders, from ignorance of the peculiar and antiquated dialect in
which the original is written, and of assumptions by the Jesuit himself,
which rest upon no authority whatever. I will first shew, in support
of this assertion, what the Italians themselves think of the work of
Fathers Brumoy and Du Cerceau. The Signor Zefirino Re, who had proved
himself singularly and minutely acquainted with the history of that
time, and whose notes to the "Life of Rienzi" are characterized by
acknowledged acuteness and research, thus describes the manner in which
the two Jesuits compounded this valuable "record of facts."

"Father Du Cerceau for his work made use of a French translation of the
life by the Italian contemporary printed in Bracciano, 1624, executed
by Father Sanadon, another Jesuit, from whom he