brazen
bowl. About a hundred men, in cloaks, and with black vizards, stood
motionless around; and one, taller than the rest, without disguise or
mask--whose pale brow and stern features seemed by that light yet
paler and yet more stern--appeared to be concluding some address to his
companions.

"Yes," said he, "in the church of the Lateran I will make the last
appeal to the people. Supported by the Vicar of the Pope, myself an
officer of the Pontiff, it will be seen that Religion and Liberty--the
heroes and the martyrs--are united in one cause. After that time, words
are idle; action must begin. By this crucifix I pledge my faith, on this
blade I devote my life, to the regeneration of Rome! And you (then no
need for mask or mantle!), when the solitary trump is heard, when the
solitary horseman is seen,--you, swear to rally round the standard of
the Republic, and resist--with heart and hand, with life and soul,
in defiance of death, and in hope of redemption--the arms of the
oppressor!"

"We swear--we swear!" exclaimed every voice: and, crowding toward cross
and weapon, the tapers were obscured by the intervening throng, and
Montreal could not perceive the ceremony, nor hear the muttered
formula of the oath: but he could guess that the rite then common to
conspiracies--and which required each conspirator to shed some drops
of his own blood, in token that life itself was devoted to the
enterprise--had not been omitted, when, the group again receding, the
same figure as before had addressed the meeting, holding on high the
bowl with both hands,--while from the left arm, which was bared,
the blood weltered slowly, and trickled, drop by drop, upon the
ground,--said, in a solemn voice and upturned eyes:

"Amidst the ruins of thy temple, O Liberty! we, Romans, dedicate to
thee this libation! We, befriended and inspired by no unreal and fabled
idols, but by the Lord of Hosts, and Him who, descending to earth,
appealed not to emperors and to princes, but to the fisherman and the
peasant,--giving to the lowly and the poor the mission of Revelation."
Then, turning suddenly to his companions, as his features, singularly
varying in their character and expression, brightened, from solemn awe,
into a martial and kindling enthusiasm, he cried aloud, "Death to
the Tyranny! Life to the Republic!" The effect of the transition was
startling. Each man, as by an involuntary and irresistible impulse, laid
his hand upon his sword, as he e