recovered himself, a slight tap at the door
was heard, and the sound seemed at once to recall his self-possession.

"Enter," he said, lifting his face, to which the wonted colour slowly
returned.

An officer, half-opening the door, announced that the person he had sent
for waited his leisure.

"I come!--Core of my heart," (he whispered to Nina,) "we will sup alone
tonight, and will converse more on these matters:" so saying, with
somewhat less than his usual loftiness of mien, he left the room,
and sought his cabinet, which lay at the other side of the reception
chamber. Here he found Cecco del Vecchio.

"How, my bold fellow," said the Tribune, assuming with wonderful ease
that air of friendly equality which he always adopted with those of the
lower class, and which made a striking contrast with the majesty, no
less natural, which marked his manner to the great. "How now, my Cecco!
Thou bearest thyself bravely, I see, during these sickly heats; we
labourers--for both of us labour, Cecco--are too busy to fall ill as the
idle do, in the summer, or the autumn, of Roman skies. I sent for thee,
Cecco, because I would know how thy fellow-craftsmen are like to take
the Orsini's execution."

"Oh! Tribune," replied the artificer, who, now familiarized with Rienzi,
had lost much of his earlier awe of him, and who regarded the Tribune's
power as partly his own creation; "they are already out of their honest
wits, at your courage in punishing the great men as you would the
small."

"So;--I am repaid! But hark you, Cecco, it will bring, perhaps, hot work
upon us. Every Baron will dread lest it be his turn next, and dread will
make them bold, like rats in despair. We may have to fight for the Good
Estate."

"With all my heart, Tribune," answered Cecco, gruffly. "I, for one, am
no craven."

"Then keep the same spirit in all your meetings with the artificers. I
fight for the people. The people at a pinch must fight with me."

"They will," replied Cecco; "they will!"

"Cecco, this city is under the spiritual dominion of the Pontiff--so
be it--it is an honour, not a burthen. But the temporal dominion, my
friend, should be with Romans only. Is it not a disgrace to Republican
Rome, that while we now speak, certain barbarians, whom we never heard
of, should be deciding beyond the Alps on the merits of two sovereigns,
whom we never saw? Is not this a thing to be resisted? An Italian
city,--what hath it to do with a Bohemian Empe