of the soldiers.

One other and rapid glance cast the Senator round the board, and then,
with a disdainful smile, as if anxious for no meaner prey, turned away.
Not a breath had hitherto passed his lips--all had been dumb
show--and his grim silence had imparted a more freezing terror to his
unguessed-for apparition. Only, when he reached the door, he turned
back, gazed upon the Knight of St. John's bold and undaunted face,
and said, almost in a whisper, "Walter de Montreal!--you heard the
death-knell!"

Chapter 10.IV. The Sentence of Walter de Montreal.

In silence the Captain of the Grand Company was borne to the prison of
the Capitol. In the same building lodged the rivals for the government
of Rome; the one occupied the prison, the other the palace. The guards
forebore the ceremony of fetters, and leaving a lamp on the table,
Montreal perceived he was not alone,--his brothers had preceded him.

"Ye are happily met," said the Knight of St. John; "we have passed
together pleasanter nights than this is likely to be."

"Can you jest, Walter?" said Arimbaldo, half-weeping. "Know you not that
our doom is fixed? Death scowls upon us."

"Death!" repeated Montreal, and for the first time his countenance
changed; perhaps for the first time in his life he felt the thrill and
agony of fear.

"Death!" he repeated again. "Impossible! He dare not, Brettone; the
soldiers, the Northmen!--they will mutiny, they will pluck us back from
the grasp of the headsman!"

"Cast from you so vain a hope," said Brettone sullenly; "the soldiers
are encamped at Palestrina."

"How! Dolt--fool! Came you then to Rome alone! Are we alone with this
dread man?"

"You are the dolt! Why came you hither?" answered the brother.

"Why, indeed! but that I knew thou wast the Captain of the army;
and--but thou said'st right--the folly is mine, to have played against
the crafty Tribune so unequal a brain as thine. Enough! Reproaches are
idle. When were ye arrested?"

"At dusk--the instant we entered the gates of Rome. Rienzi entered
privately."

"Humph! What can he know against me? Who can have betrayed me? My
secretaries are tried--all trustworthy--except that youth, and he so
seemingly zealous--that Angelo Villani!"

"Villani! Angelo Villani!" cried the brothers in a breath. "Hast thou
confided aught to him?"

"Why, I fear he must have seen--at least in part--my correspondence with
you, and with the Barons--he was among my scribes. Know