as the emancipation of
all Italy: and their reverence of the Tribune's power and fortune was
almost that due to a supernatural being; so that they did not pause to
calculate the means which were to correspond with the boast.

While his eye roved over the crowd, the gorgeous assemblage near him,
the devoted throng beyond;--as on his ear boomed the murmur of thousands
and ten thousands, in the space without, from before the Palace of
Constantine (Palace now his own!) sworn to devote life and fortune to
his cause; in the flush of prosperity that yet had known no check; in
the zenith of power, as yet unconscious of reverse, the heart of
the Tribune swelled proudly: visions of mighty fame and limitless
dominion,--fame and dominion, once his beloved Rome's and by him to be
restored, rushed before his intoxicated gaze; and in the delirious and
passionate aspirations of the moment, he turned his sword alternately to
the three quarters of the then known globe, and said, in an abstracted
voice, as a man in a dream, "In the right of the Roman people this too
is mine!" ("Questo e mio.")

Low though the voice, the wild boast was heard by all around as
distinctly as if borne to them in thunder. And vain it were to describe
the various sensations it excited; the extravagance would have moved the
derision of his foes, the grief of his friends, but for the manner of
the speaker, which, solemn and commanding, hushed for the moment even
reason and hatred themselves in awe; afterwards remembered and repeated,
void of the spell they had borrowed from the utterer, the words met the
cold condemnation of the well-judging; but at that moment all
things seemed possible to the hero of the people. He spoke as one
inspired--they trembled and believed; and, as rapt from the spectacle,
he stood a moment silent, his arm still extended--his dark dilating
eye fixed upon space--his lip parted--his proud head towering and erect
above the herd,--his own enthusiasm kindled that of the more humble and
distant spectators; and there was a deep murmur begun by one, echoed by
the rest, "The Lord is with Italy and Rienzi!"

The Tribune turned, he saw the Pope's Vicar astonished, bewildered,
rising to speak. His sense and foresight returned to him at once, and,
resolved to drown the dangerous disavowal of the Papal authority
for this hardihood, which was ready to burst from Raimond's lips, he
motioned quickly to the musicians, and the solemn and ringing chant of