t both
factions were equally odious, and the people was the sole legitimate
cry in a popular commotion, would have withdrawn themselves from the
approaching melee, if the smith himself, who was looked upon by them as
an authority of great influence, had not--whether from resentment at the
haughty bearing of the young Colonna, or from that appetite of contest
not uncommon in men of a bulk and force which assure them in all
personal affrays the lofty pleasure of superiority--if, I say, the smith
himself had not, after a pause of indecision, retired among the Orsini,
and entrained, by his example, the alliance of his friends with the
favourers of that faction.

In popular commotions, each man is whirled along with the herd, often
half against his own approbation or assent. The few words of peace
by which Adrian di Castello commenced an address to his friends were
drowned amidst their shouts. Proud to find in their ranks one of the
most beloved, and one of the noblest of that name, the partisans of
the Colonna placed him in their front, and charged impetuously on their
foes. Adrian, however, who had acquired from circumstances something of
that chivalrous code which he certainly could not have owed to his Roman
birth, disdained at first to assault men among whom he recognised no
equal, either in rank or the practice of arms. He contented himself with
putting aside the few strokes that were aimed at him in the gathering
confusion of the conflict--few; for those who recognised him, even
amidst the bitterest partisans of the Orsini, were not willing to expose
themselves to the danger and odium of spilling the blood of a man, who,
in addition to his great birth and the terrible power of his connexions,
was possessed of a personal popularity, which he owed rather to a
comparison with the vices of his relatives than to any remarkable
virtues hitherto displayed by himself. The smith alone, who had as
yet taken no active part in the fray, seemed to gather himself up in
determined opposition as the cavalier now advanced within a few steps of
him.

"Did we not tell thee," quoth the giant, frowning, "that the Colonna
were, not less than the Orsini, the foes of the people? Look at thy
followers and clients: are they not cutting the throats of humble men by
way of vengeance for the crime of a great one? But that is the way one
patrician always scourges the insolence of another. He lays the rod on
the backs of the people, and then crie