by
birth a Frenchman, and full of the bitterest prejudices against the
Romans, who had in a former mission very ill received him, as was their
wont with foreign ecclesiastics; "this Pepin, whom Montreal has deputed
at your orders, hath done us indeed good service."

The old Lord bowed, but made no answer. His strong intellect was already
broken, and there was dotage in his glassy eye. The Cardinal muttered,
"He hears me not; sorrow hath brought him to second childhood!" and
looking back, motioned to Luca Savelli to approach.

"Luca," said the Legate, "it was fortunate that the Hungarian's black
banner detained the Provencal at Aversa. Had he entered Rome, we might
have found Rienzi's successor worse than the Tribune himself. Montreal,"
he added, with a slight emphasis and a curled lip, "is a gentleman, and
a Frenchman. This Pepin, who is his delegate, we must bribe, or menace
to our will."

"Assuredly," answered Savelli, "it is not a difficult task: for Montreal
calculated on a more stubborn contest, which he himself would have found
leisure to close--"

"As Podesta, or Prince of Rome! the modest man! We Frenchmen have a due
sense of our own merits; but this sudden victory surprises him as it
doth us, Luca; and we shall wrest the prey from Pepin, ere Montreal can
come to his help! But Rienzi must die. He is still, I hear, shut up in
St. Angelo. The Orsini shall storm him there ere the day be much older.
Today we possess the Capitol--annul all the rebel's laws--break up his
ridiculous parliament, and put all the government of the city under
three senators--Rinaldo Orsini, Colonna, and myself; you, my Lord, I
trust, we shall fitly provide for."

"Oh! I am rewarded enough by returning to my palace; and a descent
on the Jewellers' quarter will soon build up its fortifications. Luca
Savelli is not an ambitious man. He wants but to live in peace."

The Cardinal smiled sourly, and took the turn towards the Capitol.

In the front space the usual gapers were assembled. "Make way! make
way! knaves!" cried the guards, trampling on either side the crowd, who,
accustomed to the sedate and courteous order of Rienzi's guard, fell
back too slowly for many of them to escape severe injury from the pikes
of the soldiers and the hoofs of the horses. Our friend, Luigi, the
butcher, was one of these, and the surliness of the Roman blood was past
boiling heat when he received in his ample stomach the blunt end of a
German's pike. "The