stirring ones, too--in Rome, than you imagine. Beware Rienzi! Adieu,
we meet soon again."

Thus saying, Montreal departed, soliloquising as he passed with his
careless step through the crowded ante-room:

"I shall fail here!--these caitiff nobles have neither the courage to
be great, nor the wisdom to be honest. Let them fall!--I may find an
adventurer from the people, an adventurer like myself, worth them all."

No sooner had Stephen returned to Adrian than he flung his arms
affectionately round his ward, who was preparing his pride for some
sharp rebuke for his petulance.

"Nobly feigned,--admirable, admirable!" cried the Baron; "you have
learned the true art of a statesman at the Emperor's court. I always
thought you would--always said it. You saw the dilemma I was in,
thus taken by surprise by that barbarian's mad scheme; afraid to
refuse,--more afraid to accept. You extricated me with consummate
address: that passion,--so natural to your age,--was a famous feint;
drew off the attack; gave me time to breathe; allowed me to play with
the savage. But we must not offend him, you know: all my retainers would
desert me, or sell me to the Orsini, or cut my throat, if he but held up
his finger. Oh! it was admirably managed, Adrian--admirably!"

"Thank Heaven!" said Adrian, with some difficulty recovering the breath
which his astonishment had taken away, "you do not think of embracing
that black proposition?"

"Think of it! no, indeed!" said Stephen, throwing himself back on his
chair. "Why, do you not know my age, boy? Hard on my ninetieth year, I
should be a fool indeed to throw myself into such a whirl of turbulence
and agitation. I want to keep what I have, not risk it by grasping more.
Am I not the beloved of the pope? shall I hazard his excommunication? Am
I not the most powerful of the nobles? should I be more if I were king?
At my age, to talk to me of such stuff!--the man's an idiot. Besides,"
added the old man, sinking his voice, and looking fearfully round, "if
I were a king, my sons might poison me for the succession. They are
good lads, Adrian, very! But such a temptation!--I would not throw it in
their way; these grey hairs have experience! Tyrants don't die a natural
death; no, no! Plague on the Knight, say I; he has already cast me into
a cold sweat."

Adrian gazed on the working features of the old man, whose selfishness
thus preserved him from crime. He listened to his concluding words--full
of the