that most flattering speech. Are these friendly feelings entertained
towards me as the Governor of the Roman people, or as the brother of the
woman who has listened to your vows?"

Adrian, who when the Senator had unmasked had followed his example,
felt at these words that his eye quailed beneath Rienzi's. However, he
recovered himself with the wonted readiness of an Italian, and replied
laconically,

"As both."

"Both!" echoed Rienzi. "Then, indeed, noble Adrian, you are welcome
hither. And yet, methinks, if you conceived there was no cause for
enmity between us, you would have wooed the sister of Cola di Rienzi
in a guise more worthy of your birth; and, permit me to add, of that
station which God, destiny, and my country, have accorded unto me. You
dare not, young Colonna, meditate dishonour to the sister of the Senator
of Rome. Highborn as you are, she is your equal."

"Were I the Emperor, whose simple knight I but am, your sister were my
equal," answered Adrian, warmly. "Rienzi, I grieve that I am discovered
to you yet. I had trusted that, as a mediator between the Barons and
yourself, I might first have won your confidence, and then claimed my
reward. Know that with tomorrow's dawn I depart for Palestrina, seeking
to reconcile my young cousin to the choice of the People and the
Pontiff. Various reasons, which I need not now detail, would have
made me wish to undertake this heraldry of peace without previous
communication with you. But since we have met, intrust me with any
terms of conciliation, and I pledge you the right hand, not of a Roman
noble--alas! the prisca fides has departed from that pledge!--but of a
Knight of the Imperial Court, that I will not betray your confidence."

Rienzi, accustomed to read the human countenance, had kept his eyes
intently fixed upon Adrian while he spoke; when the Colonna concluded,
he pressed the proffered hand, and said, with that familiar and winning
sweetness which at times was so peculiar to his manner,

"I trust you, Adrian, from my soul. You were mine early friend in
calmer, perchance happier, years. And never did river reflect the stars
more clearly, than your heart then mirrored back the truth. I trust
you!"

While thus speaking, he had mechanically led back the Colonna to the
statue of the Lion; there pausing, he resumed:

"Know that I have this morning despatched my delegate to your cousin
Stefanello. With all due courtesy, I have apprised him of my return t