long as the latter had no leader. One may judge of what Rome was, when
even pilgrims did not dare to go thither and visit the tomb of Saint
Peter. The discord of the great houses made Rienzi's life a career; the
defection of the Orsini from the Pope's party led to his flight; their
battles suggested to the exiled Pope the idea of sending him back to
Rome to break their power and restore a republic by which the Pope might
restore himself; and the rage of their retainers expended itself in his
violent death. For it was their retainers who fought for their masters,
till the younger Stephen Colonna killed Bertoldo Orsini, the bravest man
of his day, in an ambush, and the Orsini basely murdered a boy of the
Colonna on the steps of a church. But Rienzi was of another Region, of
the Regola by the Tiber, and it is not yet time to tell his story. And
by and by, as the power of the Popes rose and they became again as the
Caesars had been, Colonna and Orsini forgot their feuds, and were glad to
stand on the Pope's right and left as hereditary 'Assistants of the Holy
See.' In the petty ending of all old greatnesses in modern times, the
result of the greatest feud that ever made two races mortal foes is
merely that no prudent host dare ask the heads of the two houses to
dinner together, lest a question of precedence should arise, such as no
master of ceremonies would presume to settle. That is what it has come
to. Once upon a time an Orsini quarrelled with a Colonna in the Corso,
just where Aragno's cafe is now situated, and ran him through with his
rapier, wounding him almost to death. He was carried into the palace of
the Theodoli, close by, and the records of that family tell that within
the hour eight hundred of the Colonna's retainers were in the house to
guard him. In as short space, the Orsini called out three thousand men
in arms, when Caesar Borgia's henchman claimed the payment of a tax.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE MAUSOLEUM OF AUGUSTUS

From a print of the last century]

Times have changed since then. The Mausoleum of Augustus, once a
fortress, has been an open air theatre in our time, and there the great
Salvini and Ristori often acted in their early youth; it is a circus
now. And in less violent contrast, but with change as great from what it
was, the palace of the Colonna suggests no thought of defence nowadays,
and the wide gates and courtyard recall rather the splendours of the
Constable and of his wife, Maria M