of the once
celebrated Temple of Fortune; and still the immemorial olives clustered
grey and mournfully around the ruins.

A more formidable hold the Barons of Rome could not have selected; and
as Adrian's military eye scanned the steep ascent and the rugged walls,
he felt that with ordinary skill it might defy for months all the power
of the Roman Senator. Below, in the fertile valley, dismantled cottages
and trampled harvests attested the violence and rapine of the insurgent
Barons; and at that very moment were seen, in the old plain of the
warlike Hernici, troops of armed men, driving before them herds of sheep
and cattle, collected in their lawless incursions. In sight of that
Praeneste, which had been the favourite retreat of the luxurious Lords
of Rome in its most polished day, the Age of Iron seemed renewed.

The banner of the Colonna, borne by Adrian's troop, obtained ready
admittance at the Porta del Sole. As he passed up the irregular
and narrow streets that ascended to the citadel, groups of foreign
mercenaries,--half-ragged, half-tawdry knots of abandoned women,--mixed
here and there with the liveries of the Colonna, stood loitering amidst
the ruins of ancient fanes and palaces, or basked lazily in the sun,
upon terraces, through which, from amidst weeds and grass, glowed the
imperishable hues of the rich mosaics, which had made the pride of that
lettered and graceful nobility, of whom savage freebooters were now the
heirs.

The contrast between the Past and Present forcibly occurred to Adrian,
as he passed along; and, despite his order, he felt as if Civilization
itself were enlisted against his House upon the side of Rienzi.

Leaving his train in the court of the citadel, Adrian demanded admission
to the presence of his cousin. He had left Stefanello a child on his
departure from Rome, and there could therefore be but a slight and
unfamiliar acquaintance betwixt them, despite their kindred.

Peals of laughter came upon his ear, as he followed one of Stefanello's
gentlemen through a winding passage that led to the principal chamber.
The door was thrown open, and Adrian found himself in a rude hall, to
which some appearance of hasty state and attempted comfort had been
given. Costly arras imperfectly clothed the stone walls, and the rich
seats and decorated tables, which the growing civilization of the
northern cities of Italy had already introduced into the palaces of
Italian nobles, strangely contrast