vening, with a woman of a tall and stately form,
but somewhat bowed both by infirmity and years. The boy was of a fair
and comely presence; and there was that in his bold, frank, undaunted
carriage, which made him appear older than he was.

The old woman, seated in the recess of the deep window, was apparently
occupied with a Bible that lay open on her knees; but ever and anon she
lifted her eyes, and gazed on her young companion with a sad and anxious
expression.

"Dame," said the boy, who was busily employed in hewing out a sword of
wood, "I would you had seen the show today. Why, every day is a show
at Rome now! It is show enough to see the Tribune himself on his white
steed--(oh, it is so beautiful!)--with his white robes all studded with
jewels. But today, as I have just been telling you, the Lady Nina took
notice of me, as I stood on the stairs of the Capitol: you know, dame, I
had donned my best blue velvet doublet."

"And she called you a fair boy, and asked if you would be her little
page; and this has turned thy brain, silly urchin that thou art--"

"But the words are the least: if you saw the Lady Nina, you would own
that a smile from her might turn the wisest head in Italy. Oh, how I
should like to serve the Tribune! All the lads of my age are mad for
him. How they will stare, and envy me at school tomorrow! You know too,
dame, that though I was not always brought up at Rome, I am Roman. Every
Roman loves Rienzi."

"Ay, for the hour: the cry will soon change. This vanity of thine,
Angelo, vexes my old heart. I would thou wert humbler."

"Bastards have their own name to win," said the boy, colouring deeply.
"They twit me in the teeth, because I cannot say who my father and
mother were."

"They need not," returned the dame, hastily. "Thou comest of noble blood
and long descent, though, as I have told thee often, I know not the
exact names of thy parents. But what art thou shaping that tough sapling
of oak into?"

"A sword, dame, to assist the Tribune against the robbers."

"Alas! I fear me, like all those who seek power in Italy, he is more
likely to enlist robbers than to assail them."

"Why, la you there, you live so shut up, that you know and hear nothing,
or you would have learned that even that fiercest of all the robbers,
Fra Moreale, has at length yielded to the Tribune, and fled from his
castle, like a rat from a falling house."

"How, how!" cried the dame; "what say you? Has this plebeian