ided from my arms, uttering, 'Woe, woe,
to the Colonna!" said the young man, solemnly.

"I have lived nearly ninety years," replied the old man, "and I may have
dreamed, therefore, some forty thousand dreams; of which, two came true,
and the rest were false. Judge, then, what chances are in favour of the
science!"

Thus conversing, they approached within bow-shot of the gates, which
were still open. All was silent as death. The army, which was composed
chiefly of foreign mercenaries, halted in deliberation--when, lo!--a
torch was suddenly cast on high over the walls; it gleamed a moment--and
then hissed in the miry pool below.

"It is the signal of our friends within, as agreed on," cried old
Colonna. "Pietro, advance with your company!" The young nobleman closed
his visor, put himself at the head of the band under his command; and,
with his lance in his rest, rode in a half gallop to the gates. The
morning had been clouded and overcast, and the sun, appearing only at
intervals, now broke out in a bright stream of light--as it glittered
on the waving plume and shining mail of the young horseman, disappearing
under the gloomy arch, several paces in advance of his troop. On swept
his followers--forward went the cavalry headed by Gianni Colonna,
Pietro's father.--there was a minute's silence, broken only by the
clatter of the arms, and tramp of hoofs,--when from within the walls
rose the abrupt cry--"Rome, the Tribune, and the People! Spirito Santo,
Cavaliers!" The main body halted aghast. Suddenly Gianni Colonna was
seen flying backward from the gate at full speed.

"My son, my son!" he cried, "they have murdered him;"--he halted abrupt
and irresolute, then adding, "But I will avenge!" wheeled round, and
spurred again through the arch,--when a huge machine of iron, shaped as
a portcullis, suddenly descended upon the unhappy father, and crushed
man and horse to the ground--one blent, mangled, bloody mass.

The old Colonna saw, and scarce believed his eyes; and ere his troop
recovered its stupor, the machine rose, and over the corpse dashed
the Popular Armament. Thousands upon thousands, they came on; a wild,
clamorous, roaring stream. They poured on all sides upon their enemies,
who drawn up in steady discipline, and clad in complete mail, received
and broke their charge.

"Revenge, and the Colonna!"--"The Bear and the Orsini!"--"Charity and
the Frangipani!" (Who had taken their motto from some fabled ancestor
who h