se eloquent invectives against your fellow-citizens which ye have
lately heard. All of us, of what rank soever, may have shared in the
excesses of these unhappy times; let us endeavour, not to avenge nor to
imitate, but to reform and to unite. And may the people hereafter find,
that the true boast of a patrician is, that his power the better enables
him to serve his country."

"Brave words!" quoth the smith, sneeringly.

"If they were all like him!" said the smith's neighbour.

"He has helped the nobles out of a dilemma," said Pandulfo.

"He has shown grey wit under young hairs," said an aged Malatesta.

"You have turned the tide, but not stemmed it, noble Adrian," whispered
the ever-boding Montreal, as, amidst the murmurs of the general
approbation, the young Colonna resumed his seat.

"How mean you?" said Adrian.

"That your soft words, like all patrician conciliations, have come too
late."

Not another noble stirred, though they felt, perhaps, disposed to join
in the general feeling of amnesty, and appeared, by signs and whispers,
to applaud the speech of Adrian. They were too habituated to the
ungracefulness of an unlettered pride, to bow themselves to address
conciliating language either to the people or their foes. And Raimond,
glancing round, and not willing that their unseemly silence should be
long remarked, rose at once, to give it the best construction in his
power.

"My son, thou hast spoken as a patriot and a Christian; by the approving
silence of your peers we all feel that they share your sentiments. Break
we up the meeting--its end is obtained. The manner of our proceeding
against the leagued robbers of the road requires maturer consideration
elsewhere. This day shall be an epoch in our history."

"It shall," quoth Cecco del Vecchio, gruffly, between his teeth.

"Children, my blessing upon you all!" concluded the Vicar, spreading his
arms.

And in a few minutes more the crowd poured from the church. The
different servitors and flag-bearers ranged themselves on the steps
without, each train anxious for their master's precedence; and the
nobles, gravely collecting in small knots, in the which was no mixture
of rival blood, followed the crowd down the aisles. Soon rose again the
din, and the noise, and the wrangling, and the oaths, of the hostile
bands, as, with pain and labour, the Vicar's officers marshalled them in
"order most disorderly."

But so true were Montreal's words to Adrian, tha