ke for love
and for command;--a Zenobia passing through the pomp of Rome,--not a
captive, but a queen.

But not upon that stately form riveted the gaze of Adrian--pale,
breathless, trembling, he clung to the walls against which he leaned.
Was it a dream? Had the dead revived? Or was it his own--his living
Irene--whose soft and melancholy loveliness shone sadly by the side of
Nina--a star beside the moon? The pageant faded from his eyes--all grew
dim and dark. For a moment he was insensible. When he recovered, the
crowd was hurrying along, confused and blent with the mighty stream
that followed the procession. Through the moving multitude he caught the
graceful form of Irene, again snatched by the closing standards of the
procession from his view. His blood rushed back from his heart through
every vein. He was as a man who for years had been in a fearful trance,
and who is suddenly awakened to the light of heaven.

One of that mighty throng remained motionless with Adrian. It was Cecco
del Vecchio.

"He did not see me," muttered the smith to himself; "old friends are
forgotten now! Well, well, Cecco del Vecchio hates tyrants still--no
matter what their name, nor how smoothly they are disguised. He did not
see ME! Umph!"

Chapter 9.II. The Masquerade.

The acuter reader has already learned, without the absolute intervention
of the author as narrator, the incidents occurring to Rienzi in the
interval between his acquittal at Avignon and his return to Rome. As the
impression made by Nina upon the softer and better nature of Albornoz
died away, he naturally began to consider his guest--as the profound
politicians of that day ever considered men--a piece upon the great
Chess-Board, to be moved, advanced, or sacrificed, as best suited
the scheme in view. His purpose accomplished, in the recovery of the
patrimonial territory, the submission of John di Vico, and the fall
and death of the Demagogue Baroncelli, the Cardinal deemed it far from
advisable to restore to Rome, and with so high a dignity, the able and
ambitious Rienzi. Before the daring Roman, even his own great spirit
quailed; and he was wholly unable to conceive or to calculate the policy
that might be adopted by the new Senator, when once more Lord of
Rome. Without affecting to detain, he therefore declined to assist in
restoring him. And Rienzi thus saw himself within an easy march of Rome,
without one soldier to protect him against the Barons by the way.