d his person, and slept in
his ante-chamber.

Retiring that night at Tivoli, to the apartment prepared for him, the
Senator sat down by the open casement, through which were seen, waving
in the starlight, the dark pines that crowned the hills, while the
stillness of the hour gave to his ear the dash of the waterfalls heard
above the regular and measured tread of the sentinels below. Leaning his
cheek upon his hand, Rienzi long surrendered himself to gloomy thought,
and, when he looked up, he saw the bright blue eye of Villani fixed in
anxious sympathy on his countenance.

"Is my Lord unwell?" asked the young chamberlain, hesitating.

"Not so, my Angelo; but somewhat sick at heart. Methinks, for a
September night, the air is chill!"

"Angelo," resumed Rienzi, who had already acquired that uneasy curiosity
which belongs to an uncertain power,--"Angelo, bring me hither yon
writing implements; hast thou heard aught what the men say of our
probable success against Palestrina?"

"Would my Lord wish to learn all their gossip, whether it please or
not?" answered Villani.

"If I studied only to hear what pleased me, Angelo, I should never have
returned to Rome."

"Why, then, I heard a constable of the Northmen say, meaningly, that the
place will not be carried."

"Humph! And what said the captains of my Roman Legion?"

"My Lord, I have heard it whispered that they fear defeat less than they
do the revenge of the Barons, if they are successful."

"And with such tools the living race of Europe and misjudging posterity
will deem that the workman is to shape out the Ideal and the Perfect!
Bring me yon Bible."

As Angelo reverently brought to Rienzi the sacred book, he said,

"Just before I left my companions below, there was a rumour that the
Lord Adrian Colonna had been imprisoned by his kinsman."

"I too heard, and I believe, as much," returned Rienzi: "these Barons
would gibbet their own children in irons, if there were any chance of
the shackles growing rusty for want of prey. But the wicked shall be
brought low, and their strong places shall be made desolate."

"I would, my Lord," said Villani, "that our Northmen had other captains
than these Provencals."

"Why?" asked Rienzi, abruptly.

"Have the creatures of the Captain of the Grand Company ever held faith
with any man whom it suited the avarice or the ambition of Montreal to
betray? Was he not, a few months ago, the right arm of John di Vico,
and did he