her head from her
husband's bosom, and gazed sadly on his countenance--"Oh, what thou hast
known since we parted!--what, since that hour when, borne on by thy bold
heart and wild destiny, thou didst leave me in the Imperial Court,
to seek again the diadem and find the chain! Ah! why did I heed thy
commands?--why suffer thee to depart alone? How often in thy progress
hitherward, in doubt, in danger, might this bosom have been thy
resting-place, and this voice have whispered comfort to thy soul? Thou
art well, my Lord--my Cola! Thy pulse beats quicker than of old--thy
brow is furrowed. Ah! tell me thou art well!"

"Well," said Rienzi, mechanically. "Methinks so!--the mind diseased
blunts all sense of bodily decay. Well--yes! And thou--thou, at least,
art not changed, save to maturer beauty. The glory of the laurel-wreath
has not faded from thy brow. Thou shalt yet--" then breaking off
abruptly--"Rome--tell me of Rome! And thou--how camest thou hither? Ah!
perhaps my doom is sealed, and in their mercy they have vouchsafed that
I should see thee once more before the deathsman blinds me. I remember,
it is the grace vouchsafed to malefactors. When I was a lord of life and
death, I too permitted the meanest criminal to say farewell to those he
loved."

"No--not so, Cola!" exclaimed Nina, putting her hand before his mouth.
"I bring thee more auspicious tidings. Tomorrow thou art to be heard.
The favour of the Court is propitiated. Thou wilt be acquitted."

"Ha! speak again."

"Thou wilt be heard, my Cola--thou must be acquitted!"

"And Rome be free!--Great God, I thank Thee!"

The Tribune sank on his knees, and never had his heart, in his youngest
and purest hour, poured forth thanksgiving more fervent, yet less
selfish. When he rose again, the whole man seemed changed. His eye had
resumed its earlier expressions of deep and serene command. Majesty sate
upon his brow. The sorrows of the exile were forgotten. In his sanguine
and rapid thoughts, he stood once more the guardian of his country,--and
its sovereign!

Nina gazed upon him with that intense and devoted worship, which steeped
her vainer and her harder qualities in all the fondness of the softest
woman. "Such," thought she, "was his look eight years ago, when he left
my maiden chamber, full of the mighty schemes which liberated Rome--such
his look, when at the dawning sun he towered amidst the crouching
Barons, and the kneeling population of the city he had made