alians.

"May Lucifer double damn those German cut-throats!" muttered, between
his grinded teeth, one of the citizens.

"Amen!" answered, heartily, another.

"Hush!" said a third, timorously looking round; "if one of them hear
thee, thou art a lost man."

"Oh, Rome! Rome! to what art thou fallen!" said bitterly one citizen,
clothed in black, and of a higher seeming than the rest; "when thou
shudderest in thy streets at the tread of a hired barbarian!"

"Hark to one of our learned men, and rich citizens!" said the butcher,
reverently.

"'Tis a friend of Rienzi's," quoth another of the group, lifting his
cap.

With downcast eyes, and a face in which grief, shame, and wrath, were
visibly expressed, Pandulfo di Guido, a citizen of birth and repute,
swept slowly through the crowd, and disappeared.

Meanwhile, Adrian, having gained a street which, though in the
neighbourhood of the crowd, was empty and desolate, turned to his fierce
comrade. "Rodolf!" said he, "mark!--no violence to the citizens. Return
to the crowd, collect the friends of our house, withdraw them from the
scene; let not the Colonna be blamed for this day's violence; and assure
our followers, in my name, that I swear, by the knighthood I received at
the Emperor's hands, that by my sword shall Martino di Porto be punished
for his outrage. Fain would I, in person, allay the tumult, but my
presence only seems to sanction it. Go--thou hast weight with them all."

"Ay, Signor, the weight of blows!" answered the grim soldier. "But the
command is hard; I would fain let their puddle-blood flow an hour or
two longer. Yet, pardon me; in obeying thy orders, do I obey those of my
master, thy kinsman? It is old Stephen Colonna--who seldom spares blood
or treasure, God bless him--(save his own!)--whose money I hold, and to
whose hests I am sworn."

"Diavolo!" muttered the cavalier, and the angry spot was on his cheek;
but, with the habitual self-control of the Italian nobles, he smothered
his rising choler, and said aloud, with calmness, but dignity--

"Do as I bid thee; check this tumult--make us the forbearing party.
Let all be still within one hour hence, and call on me tomorrow for thy
reward; be this purse an earnest of my future thanks. As for my kinsman,
whom I command thee to name more reverently, 'tis in his name I speak.
Hark! the din increases--the contest swells--go--lose not another
moment."

Somewhat awed by the quiet firmness of the patrician,