d, or whom alarmed.

Slowly, with his strange and ferocious escort, Adrian renewed his way.
Winding up a steep ascent that led from the plain,--when he reached
the summit, the curve in the road shewed him the whole army on its
march;--the gonfalons waving--the armour flashing in the sun, line after
line, like a river of steel, and the whole plain bristling with the
array of that moving war;--while the solemn tread of the armed thousands
fell subdued and stifled at times by martial and exulting music. As they
swept on, Adrian descried at length the stately and towering form of
Montreal upon a black charger, distinguished even at that distance from
the rest, not more by his gorgeous armour than his lofty stature. So
swept he on in the pride of his array--in the flush of his hopes--the
head of a mighty armament--the terror of Italy--the hero that was--the
monarch that might be!

BOOK IX. THE RETURN.

"Allora la sua venuta fu a Roma sentita; Romani si
apparecchiavano a riceverlo con letizia...furo fatti archi
trionfali," &c. &c.--"Vita di Cola di Rienzi", lib. ii. c.
17.

"Then the fame of his coming was felt at Rome; the Romans
made ready to receive him with gladness...triumphal arches
were erected," &c., &c.--"Life of Cola di Rienzi".

Chapter 9.I. The Triumphal Entrance.

All Rome was astir!--from St. Angelo to the Capitol, windows, balconies,
roofs, were crowded with animated thousands. Only here and there, in the
sullen quarters of the Colonna, the Orsini, and the Savelli, reigned a
death-like solitude and a dreary gloom. In those fortifications, rather
than streets, not even the accustomed tread of the barbarian sentinel
was heard. The gates closed--the casements barred--the grim silence
around--attested the absence of the Barons. They had left the city so
soon as they had learned the certain approach of Rienzi. In the villages
and castles of the Campagna, surrounded by their mercenaries, they
awaited the hour when the people, weary of their idol, should welcome
back even those ferocious Iconoclasts.

With these exceptions, all Rome was astir! Triumphal arches of drapery,
wrought with gold and silver, raised at every principal vista, were
inscribed with mottoes of welcome and rejoicing. At frequent intervals
stood youths and maidens, with baskets of flowers and laurels. High
above the assembled multitudes--from the proud tower of Hadrian--from
the turrets of the Ca