ng form of the smith, and the small, slender, but vigorous frame
of the young noble.

Taught from their birth to despise the courage of the plebeians, even
while careless of much reputation as to their own, the patricians of
Rome were not unaccustomed to the rude fellowship of these brawls; nor
was it unoften that the mere presence of a noble sufficed to scatter
whole crowds, that had the moment before been breathing vengeance
against his order and his house.

Waving his hand, therefore, to the smith, and utterly unheeding either
his brandished weapon or his vast stature, the young Adrian di Castello,
a distant kinsman of the Colonna, haughtily bade him give way.

"To your homes, friends! and know," he added, with some dignity, "that
ye wrong us much, if ye imagine we share the evil-doings of the Orsini,
or are pandering solely to our own passions in the feud between their
house and ours. May the Holy Mother so judge me," continued he, devoutly
lifting up his eyes, "as I now with truth declare, that it is for your
wrongs, and for the wrongs of Rome, that I have drawn this sword against
the Orsini."

"So say all the tyrants," rejoined the smith, hardily, as he leant his
hammer against a fragment of stone--some remnant of ancient Rome--"they
never fight against each other, but it is for our good. One Colonna cuts
me the throat of Orsini's baker--it is for our good! Another Colonna
seizes on the daughter of Orsini's tailor--it is for our good! our
good--yes, for the good of the people! the good of the bakers and
tailors, eh?"

"Fellow," said the young nobleman, gravely, "if a Colonna did thus, he
did wrong; but the holiest cause may have bad supporters."

"Yes, the holy Church itself is propped on very in different columns,"
answered the smith, in a rude witticism on the affection of the pope for
the Colonna.

"He blasphemes! the smith blasphemes!" cried the partisans of that
powerful house. "A Colonna, a Colonna!"

"An Orsini, an Orsini!" was no less promptly the counter cry.

"The People!" shouted the smith, waving his formidable weapon far above
the heads of the group.

In an instant the whole throng, who had at first united against the
aggression of one man, were divided by the hereditary wrath of faction.
At the cry of Orsini, several new partisans hurried to the spot; the
friends of the Colonna drew themselves on one side--the defenders of
the Orsini on the other--and the few who agreed with the smith tha