hat
wealth which it would otherwise doubtless obtain from the zeal of her
children."

"Nothing can be more logically manifest, my Lord," said Rienzi.

The Vicar continued--"Now, in letters received five days since from his
Holiness, he bade me expose these fearful consequences to Christianity
to the various patricians who are legitimately fiefs of the Church, and
command their resolute combination against the marauders of the road.
With these have I conferred, and vainly."

"For by the aid, and from the troops, of those very brigands, these
patricians have fortified their palaces against each other," added
Rienzi.

"Exactly for that reason," rejoined the Bishop. "Nay, Stephen Colonna
himself had the audacity to confess it. Utterly unmoved by the loss to
so many precious souls, and, I may add, to the papal treasury, which
ought to be little less dear to right-discerning men, they refuse
to advance a step against the bandits. Now, then, hearken the second
mandate of his Holiness:--'Failing the nobles,' saith he, in his
prophetic sagacity, 'confer with Cola di Rienzi. He is a bold man, and a
pious, and, thou tellest me, of great weight with the people; and say to
him, that if his wit can devise the method for extirpating these sons
of Belial, and rendering a safe passage along the public ways, largely,
indeed, will he merit at our hands,--lasting will be the gratitude we
shall owe to him; and whatever succour thou, and the servants of our
See, can render to him, let it not be stinted.'"

"Said his Holiness thus!" exclaimed Rienzi. "I ask no more--the
gratitude is mine that he hath thought thus of his servant, and
intrusted me with this charge; at once I accept it--at once I pledge
myself to success. Let us, my Lord, let us, then, clearly understand
the limits ordained to my discretion. To curb the brigands without the
walls, I must have authority over those within. If I undertake, at peril
of my life, to clear all the avenues to Rome of the robbers who now
infest it, shall I have full licence for conduct bold, peremptory, and
severe?"

"Such conduct the very nature of the charge demands," replied Raimond.

"Ay,--even though it be exercised against the arch offenders--against
the supporters of the brigands--against the haughtiest of the nobles
themselves?"

The Bishop paused, and looked hard in the face of the speaker. "I
repeat," said he, at length, sinking his voice, and with a significant
tone, "in these bold