name I forget that I am a noble. But I tremble
at the storm you would raise so hazardously. If your insurrection
succeed, it will be violent: it will be purchased by blood--by the blood
of all the loftiest names of Rome. You will aim at a second expulsion of
the Tarquins; but it will be more like a second proscription of Sylla.
Massacres and disorders never pave the way to peace. If, on the other
hand, you fail, the chains of Rome are riveted for ever: an ineffectual
struggle to escape is but an excuse for additional tortures to the
slave."

"And what, then, would the Lord Adrian have us do?" said Rienzi, with
that peculiar and sarcastic smile which has before been noted. "Shall
we wait till the Colonna and Orsini quarrel no more? shall we ask the
Colonna for liberty, and the Orsini for justice? My Lord, we cannot
appeal to the nobles against the nobles. We must not ask them to
moderate their power; we must restore to ourselves that power. There may
be danger in the attempt--but we attempt it amongst the monuments of the
Forum: and if we fall--we shall perish worthy of our sires! Ye have
high descent, and sounding titles, and wide lands, and you talk of your
ancestral honours! We, too,--we plebeians of Rome,--we have ours! Our
fathers were freemen! where is our heritage? not sold--not given away:
but stolen from us, now by fraud, now by force--filched from us in
our sleep; or wrung from us with fierce hands, amidst our cries and
struggles. My Lord, we but ask that lawful heritage to be restored to
us: to us--nay, to you it is the same; your liberty, alike, is gone. Can
you dwell in your father's house, without towers, and fortresses, and
the bought swords of bravos? can you walk in the streets at dark without
arms and followers? True, you, a noble, may retaliate; though we dare
not. You, in your turn, may terrify and outrage others; but does licence
compensate for liberty? They have given you pomp and power--but the
safety of equal laws were a better gift. Oh, were I you--were I Stephen
Colonna himself, I should pant, ay, thirstily as I do now, for that
free air which comes not through bars and bulwarks against my
fellow-citizens, but in the open space of Heaven--safe, because
protected by the silent Providence of Law, and not by the lean fears
and hollow-eyed suspicions which are the comrades of a hated power.
The tyrant thinks he is free, because he commands slaves: the meanest
peasant in a free state is more free th