think I have heard bookmen say (you know, Signor
Pandulfo, we ought all to be bookmen now!) that the site was renowned of
old. In truth, the wine hath a racy flavour."

"I hear," said Bruttini, one of the lesser Barons, (a stanch friend
to the Colonna,) "that in this respect the innkeeper's son has put his
book-learning to some use: he knows every place where the wine grows
richest."

"What! the Senator is turned wine-bibber!" said Montreal, quaffing a
vast goblet full; "that must unfit him for business--'tis a pity."

"Verily, yes," said Pandulfo; "a man at the head of a state should be
temperate--I never drink wine unmixed."

"Ah," whispered Montreal, "if your calm good sense ruled Rome,
then, indeed, the metropolis of Italy might taste of peace. Signor
Vivaldi,"--and the host turned towards a wealthy draper,--"these
disturbances are bad for trade."

"Very, very!" groaned the draper.

"The Barons are your best customers," quoth the minor noble.

"Much, much!" said the draper.

"'Tis a pity that they are thus roughly expelled," said Montreal, in a
melancholy tone. "Would it not be possible, if the Senator (I drink
his health) were less rash--less zealous, rather,--to unite free
institutions with the return of the Barons?--such should be the task of
a truly wise statesman!"

"It surely might be possible," returned Vivaldi; "the Savelli alone
spend more with me than all the rest of Rome."

"I know not if it be possible," said Bruttini; "but I do know that it is
an outrage to all decorum that an innkeeper's son should be enabled to
make a solitude of the palaces of Rome."

"It certainly seems to indicate too vulgar a desire of mob favour," said
Montreal. "However, I trust we shall harmonize all these differences.
Rienzi, perhaps,--nay, doubtless, means well!"

"I would," said Vivaldi, who had received his cue, "that we might form
a mixed constitution--Plebeians and Patricians, each in their separate
order."

"But," said Montreal, gravely, "so new an experiment would demand great
physical force."

"Why, true; but we might call in an umpire--a foreigner who had no
interest in either faction--who might protect the new Buono Stato; a
Podesta, as we have done before--Brancaleone, for instance. How well
and wisely he ruled! that was a golden age for Rome. A Podesta for
ever!--that's my theory."

"You need not seek far for the president of your council," said
Montreal, smiling at Pandulfo; "a citizen at once