pliments and good wishes;
but says he is under fealty to the Hungarian king, whose cause is before
Rienzi's tribunal; that he cannot desert his present standard; that he
fears Rome is so evenly balanced between patricians and the people, that
whatever party would permanently be uppermost must call in a Podesta;
and this character alone the Provencal insinuates would suit him."

"Montreal our Podesta?" cried the Orsini.

"And why not?" said Savelli; "as good a well-born Podesta as a low-born
Tribune? But I trust we may do without either. Colonna, has this
messenger from Fra Moreale left the city?"

"I suppose so."

"No," said Orsini; "I met him at the gate, and knew him of old: it is
Rodolf, the Saxon (once a hireling of the Colonna), who has made some
widows among my clients in the good old day. He is a little disguised
now; however, I recognised and accosted him, for I thought he was one
who might yet become a friend, and I bade him await me at my palace."

"You did well," said the Savelli, musing, and his eyes met those of
Orsini. Shortly afterwards a conference, in which much was said and
nothing settled, was broken up; but Luca di Savelli, loitering at the
porch, prayed the Frangipani, and the other Barons, to adjourn to the
Orsini's palace.

"The old Colonna," said he, "is well-nigh in his dotage. We shall come
to a quick determination without him, and we can secure his proxy in his
son."

And this was a true prophecy, for half-an-hour's consultation with
Rodolf of Saxony sufficed to ripen thought into enterprise.

Chapter 4.V. The Night and its Incidents.

With the following twilight, Rome was summoned to the commencement of
the most magnificent spectacle the Imperial City had witnessed since the
fall of the Caesars. It had been a singular privilege, arrogated by the
people of Rome, to confer upon their citizens the order of knighthood.
Twenty years before, a Colonna and an Orsini had received this popular
honour. Rienzi, who designed it as the prelude to a more important
ceremony, claimed from the Romans a similar distinction. From the
Capitol to the Lateran swept, in long procession, all that Rome boasted
of noble, of fair, and brave. First went horsemen without number, and
from all the neighbouring parts of Italy, in apparel that well befitted
the occasion. Trumpeters, and musicians of all kinds, followed, and
the trumpets were of silver; youths bearing the harness of the knightly
war-steed, wrou