earest
the court. The sound of trumpets again hushed the throng into deep and
breathless silence, while the Pope's guards, ranged along the space
conducting from the court, drew themselves up more erect, and fell a
step or two back upon the crowd.

As the trumpet ceased, the voice of a herald was heard, but it did not
penetrate within several yards of the spot where Angelo and the soldier
stood; and it was only by a mighty shout that in a moment circled
through, and was echoed back by, the wide multitude--by the waving of
kerchiefs from the windows--by broken ejaculations, which were caught up
from lip to lip, that the page knew that Rienzi was acquitted.

"I would I could see his face!" sighed the page, querulously.

"And thou shalt," said the soldier; and he caught up the boy in his
arms, and pressed on with the strength of a giant, parting the living
stream from right to left, as he took his way to a place near the
guards, and by which Rienzi was sure to pass.

The page, half-pleased, half-indignant, struggled a little, but finding
it in vain, consented tacitly to what he felt an outrage on his dignity.

"Never mind," said the soldier, "thou art the first I ever willingly
raised above myself; and I do it now for the sake of thy fair face,
which reminds me of one I loved."

But these last words were spoken low, and the boy, in his anxiety to see
the hero of Rome, did not hear or heed them. Presently Rienzi came by;
two gentlemen, of the Pope's own following, walked by his side. He moved
slowly, amidst the greetings and clamour of the crowd, looking neither
to the right nor left. His bearing was firm and collected, and, save by
the flush of his cheek, there was no external sign of joy or excitement.
Flowers dropped from every balcony on his path; and just when he came to
a broader space, where the ground was somewhat higher, and where he
was in fuller view of the houses around, he paused--and, uncovering,
acknowledged the homage he had received, with a look--a gesture--which
each who beheld never forgot. It haunted even that gay and thoughtless
court, when the last tale of Rienzi's life reached their ears. And
Angelo, clinging then round that soldier's neck, recalled--but we must
not anticipate.

It was not, however, to the dark tower that Rienzi returned. His home
was prepared at the palace of the Cardinal d'Albornoz. The next day he
was admitted to the Pope's presence, and on the evening of that day he
was pr