roods with borrowed cattle. This
is no reminiscence of the Roman elegists, but true modern sentiment.

It may be objected that the German painters at the beginning of the
sixteenth century succeed in representing with perfect mastery these
scenes of country life, as, for instance, Albrecht Durer, in his
engraving of the prodigal son. But it is one thing if a painter, brought
up in a school of realism, introduces such scenes, and quite another
thing if a poet, accustomed to an ideal or mythological framework, is
driven by inward impulse into realism. Besides which, priority in point
of time is here, as in the descriptions of country life, on the side of
the Italian poets.

RIENZI'S REVOLUTION IN ROME

A.D. 1347

R. LODGE

When for nearly forty years Rome had been deserted by the
popes, who had betaken themselves in 1309 to a long
residence at Avignon, France, and when the Eternal City was
virtually without an imperial government--the Teutonic
emperors having likewise abandoned her--she fell back upon
the memories of her great past, recalling the glories of her
ancient supremacy and the means whereby it had been
established and maintained. Whatever might promise to
restore it she was ready to welcome.

At this time the real masters of Rome were the princes or
barons dwelling in their fortified castles outside or in
their strong palaces within the city. Over the northern
district, near the Quirinal, reigned the celebrated old
family of the Colonnas; while along the Tiber, from the
Campo-di-Fiore to the Church of St. Peter, extended the sway
of the new family of the Orsini. Other members of the
nobility, in the country, held their seats in small
fortified cities or castles. Under such domination Rome had
become almost deserted. "The population of the seven-hilled
city had come down to about thirty thousand souls." When at
peace with one another--which was rarely--the barons
exercised over the citizens and serfs a combined tyranny,
while the farmers, travellers, and pilgrims were made
victims of their plunder. At this period Petrarch--that
"first modern man"--wrote to Pope Clement VI that Rome had
become the abode of demons, the receptacle of all crimes, a
hell for the living.

"It was in these circumstances that a momentary revival of
order and liberty was effected by the most extraordinary
adventurer of an age that was prolific in adventurers