he public mind is brought into constant
communication with the new ideas in the free lands of Europe.
Civilisation sets in direct currents towards the streets and marts of
Turin. Whatever the result of the present crisis in Italy, no power
and no chance which statesmen can predict, can preclude Sardinia from
ultimately heading all that is best in Italy. The King may improve his
present position, or peculiar prejudices, inseparable perhaps from the
heritage of absolute monarchy, and which the raw and rude councils of
an Electoral Chamber, newly called into life, must often irritate and
alarm, may check his own progress towards the master throne of the
Ausonian land. But the people themselves, sooner or later, will do the
work of the King. And in now looking round Italy for a race worthy of
Rienzi, and able to accomplish his proud dreams, I see but one for which
the time is ripe or ripening, and I place the hopes of Italy in the men
of Piedmont and Sardinia.

London, February 14, 1848.

RIENZI, The Last of the Tribunes.

BOOK I. -- THE TIME, THE PLACE, AND THE MEN.

"_Fu da sua gioventudine nutricato di latte di eloquenza; buono
grammatico, megliore rettorico, autorista buono...Oh, come spesso
diceva, 'Dove sono questi buoni Romani? Dov'e loro somma giustizia?
Poterommi trovare in tempo che questi fioriscano?' Era bell
'omo...Accadde che uno suo frate fu ucciso, e non ne fu fatta vendetta
di sua morte: non lo poteo aiutare; pensa lungo mano vendicare 'l
sangue di suo frate; pensa lunga mano dirizzare la cittate di Roma male
guidata_."--"Vita di Cola di Rienzi" Ed. 1828. Forli.

"From his youth he was nourished with the milk of eloquence; a good
grammarian, a better rhetorician, well versed in the writings of
authors...Oh, how often would he say, 'Where are those good Romans?
Where is their supreme justice? Shall I ever behold such times as those
in which they flourished?' He was a handsome man...It happened that a
brother of his was slain, and no retribution was made for his death:
he could not help him; long did he ponder how to avenge his brother's
blood; long did he ponder how to direct the ill guided state of
Rome."--"Life of Cola di Rienzi."

Chapter 1.I. The Brothers.

The celebrated name which forms the title to this work will sufficiently
apprise the reader that it is in the earlier half of the fourteenth
century that my story opens.

It was on a summer evening that two youths might be se