he owner, from immortal originals.

Leaning his cheek on his hand, his brow somewhat knit, his lip slightly
compressed, that personage, indulged in meditations far other than the
indolent dreams of scholars. As the high and still moonlight shone upon
his countenance, it gave an additional and solemn dignity to features
which were naturally of a grave and majestic cast. Thick and auburn
hair, the colour of which, not common to the Romans, was ascribed to his
descent from the Teuton emperor, clustered in large curls above a high
and expansive forehead; and even the present thoughtful compression of
the brow could not mar the aspect of latent power, which it derived from
that great breadth between the eyes, in which the Grecian sculptors of
old so admirably conveyed the expression of authority, and the silent
energy of command. But his features were not cast in the Grecian, still
less in the Teuton mould. The iron jaw, the aquiline nose, the somewhat
sunken cheek, strikingly recalled the character of the hard Roman
race, and might not inaptly have suggested to a painter a model for the
younger Brutus.

The marked outline of the face, and the short, firm upper lip, were not
concealed by the beard and mustachios usually then worn; and, in the
faded portrait of the person now described, still extant at Rome, may
be traced a certain resemblance to the popular pictures of Napoleon;
not indeed in the features, which are more stern and prominent in the
portrait of the Roman, but in that peculiar expression of concentrated
and tranquil power which so nearly realizes the ideal of intellectual
majesty. Though still young, the personal advantages most peculiar to
youth,--the bloom and glow, the rounded cheek in which care has not yet
ploughed its lines, the full unsunken eye, and the slender delicacy of
frame,--these were not the characteristics of that solitary student.
And, though considered by his contemporaries as eminently handsome, the
judgment was probably formed less from the more vulgar claims to such
distinction, than from the height of the stature, an advantage at that
time more esteemed than at present, and that nobler order of beauty
which cultivated genius and commanding character usually stamp upon even
homely features;--the more rare in an age so rugged.

The character of Rienzi (for the youth presented to the reader in the
first chapter of this history is now again before him in maturer years)
had acquired greater