what they think
fit, but that the revenues shall appertain to the public"!!!--the
revenues of what?)

But enough of the blunders arising from ignorance.--I must now be
permitted to set before the reader a few of the graver offences of
wilful assumption and preposterous invention.

When Rienzi condemned some of the Barons to death, the Pere thus writes;
I take the recent translation published by Mr. Whittaker:--

"The next day the Tribune, resolving more than ever to rid himself of
his prisoners, ordered tapestries of two colours, red and white, to be
laid over the place whereon he held his councils, and which he had made
choice of to be the theatre of this bloody tragedy, as the extraordinary
tapestry seemed to declare. He afterwards sent a cordelier to every
one of the prisoners to administer the sacraments, and then ordered
the Capitol bell to be tolled. At that fatal sound and the sight of
the confessors, the Lords no longer doubted of sentence of death being
passed upon them. They all confessed except the old Colonna, and many
received the communion. In the meanwhile the people, naturally prompt to
attend, when their first impetuosity had time to calm, could not without
pity behold the dismal preparations which were making. The sight of the
bloody colour in the tapestry shocked them. On this first impression
they joined in opinion in relation to so many illustrious heads now
going to be sacrificed, and lamented more their unhappy catastrophe,
as no crime had been proved upon them to render them worthy of such
barbarous treatment. Above all, the unfortunate Stephen Colonna,
whose birth, age, and affable behaviour, commanded respect, excited a
particular compassion. An universal silence and sorrow reigned among
them. Those who were nearest Rienzi discovered an alteration. They took
the opportunity of imploring his mercy towards the prisoners in terms
the most affecting and moving."

Will it be believed, that in the original from which the Pere Du Cerceau
borrows or rather imagines this touching recital, there is not a single
syllable about the pity of the people, nor their shock at the bloody
colours of the tapestry, nor their particular compassion for the
unfortunate Stephen Colonna?--in fine, the People are not even mentioned
at all. All that is said is, "Some Roman citizens, (alcuni cittadini
Romani,) considering the judgment Rienzi was about to make, interposed
with soft and caressing words, and at last chang