rd. And so the Cardinal consents!
What manner of man is he? Able as they say?"

"Quick, sharp, and earnest, with an eye of fire, few words, and comes to
the point."

"Unlike a priest then;--a good brigand spoilt. What hast thou heard of
the force he heads? Ho, not so fast with the wine."

"Scanty at present.--He relies on recruits throughout Italy."

"What his designs for Rome? There, my brother, there tends my secret
soul! As for these petty towns and petty tyrants, I care not how they
fall, or by whom. But the Pope must not return to Rome. Rome must be
mine. The city of a new empire, the conquest of a new Attila! There,
every circumstance combines in my favour!--the absence of the Pope, the
weakness of the middle class, the poverty of the populace, the imbecile
though ferocious barbarism of the Barons, have long concurred to render
Rome the most facile, while the most glorious conquest!"

"My brother, pray Heaven your ambition do not wreck you at last; you
are ever losing sight of the land. Surely with the immense wealth we are
acquiring, we may--"

"Aspire to be something greater than Free Companions, generals today,
and adventurers tomorrow. Rememberest thou, how the Norman sword won
Sicily, and how the bastard William converted on the field of Hastings
his baton into a sceptre. I tell thee, Brettone, that this loose Italy
has crowns on the hedge that a dexterous hand may carry off at the point
of the lance. My course is taken, I will form the fairest army in Italy,
and with it I will win a throne in the Capitol. Fool that I was six
years ago!--Instead of deputing that mad dolt Pepin of Minorbino, had
I myself deserted the Hungarian, and repaired with my soldiery to Rome,
the fall of Rienzi would have been followed by the rise of Montreal.
Pepin was outwitted, and threw away the prey after he had hunted it
down. The lion shall not again trust the chase to the jackal!"

"Walter, thou speakest of the fate of Rienzi, let it warn thee!"

"Rienzi!" replied Montreal; "I know the man! In peaceful times or with
an honest people, he would have founded a great dynasty. But he dreamt
of laws and liberty for men who despise the first and will not protect
the last. We, of a harder race, know that a new throne must be built by
the feudal and not the civil system; and into the city we must
transport the camp. It is by the multitude that the proud Tribune gained
power,--by the multitude he lost it; it is by the sword that I