"This cannot be your reasoning, Cecco!" said Rienzi, gravely.

"Why, Tribune, I am an honest man, but I have a large family to rear."

"Enough; enough!" said the Tribune quickly; and then he added
abstractedly as to himself, but aloud,--"Methinks we have been too
lavish; these shows and spectacles should cease."

"What!" cried Cecco; "what, Tribune!--would you deny the poor fellows a
holiday. They work hard enough, and their only pleasure is seeing your
fine shows and processions; and then they go home and say,--'See, our
man beats all the Barons! what state he keeps!'"

"Ah! they blame not my splendour, then!"

"Blame it; no! Without it they would be ashamed of you, and think the
Buono Stato but a shabby concern."

"You speak bluntly, Cecco, but perhaps wisely. The saints keep you! Fail
not to remember what I told you!"

"No, no. It is a shame to have an Emperor thrust upon us;--so it is.
Good evening, Tribune."

Left alone, the Tribune remained for some time plunged in gloomy and
foreboding thoughts.

"I am in the midst of a magician's spell," said he; "if I desist, the
fiends tear me to pieces. What I have begun, that must I conclude. But
this rude man shews me too well with what tools I work. For me failure
is nothing, I have already climbed to a greatness which might render
giddy many a born prince's brain. But with my fall--Rome, Italy, Peace,
Justice, Civilization--all fall back into the abyss of ages!"

He rose; and after once or twice pacing his apartment, in which from
many a column gleamed upon him the marble effigies of the great of old,
he opened the casement to inhale the air of the now declining day.

The Place of the Capitol was deserted save by the tread of the single
sentinel. But still, dark and fearful, hung from the tall gibbet the
clay of the robber noble; and the colossal shape of the Egyptian lion
rose hard by, sharp and dark in the breathless atmosphere.

"Dread statue!" thought Rienzi, "how many unwhispered and solemn rites
hast thou witnessed by thy native Nile, ere the Roman's hand transferred
thee hither--the antique witness of Roman crimes! Strange! but when I
look upon thee I feel as if thou hadst some mystic influence over my own
fortunes. Beside thee was I hailed the republican Lord of Rome; beside
thee are my palace, my tribunal, the place of my justice, my triumphs,
and my pomp:--to thee my eyes turn from my bed of state: and if fated to
die in power and peace, thou may