Chapter 2.III. The Situation of a Popular Patrician in Times of Popular
Discontent. - Scene of the Lateran.
The situation of a Patrician who honestly loves the people is, in those
evil times, when power oppresses and freedom struggles, - when the two
divisions of men are wrestling against each other, - the most irksome and
perplexing that destiny can possibly contrive. Shall he take part with the
nobles? - he betrays his conscience! With the people? - he deserts his
friends! But that consequence of the last alternative is not the sole -
nor, perhaps, to a strong mind, the most severe. All men are swayed and
chained by public opinion - it is the public judge; but public opinion is
not the same for all ranks. The public opinion that excites or deters the
plebeian, is the opinion of the plebeians, - of those whom he sees, and
meets, and knows; of those with whom he is brought in contact, - those with
whom he has mixed from childhood, - those whose praises are daily heard, -
whose censure frowns upon him with every hour. (It is the same in still
smaller divisions. The public opinion for lawyers is that of lawyers; of
soldiers, that of the army; of scholars, it is that of men of literature
and science. And to the susceptible amongst the latter, the hostile
criticism of learning has been more stinging than the severest moral
censures of the vulgar. Many a man has done a great act, or composed a
great work, solely to please the two or three persons constantly present to
him. Their voice was his public opinion. The public opinion that operated
on Bishop, the murderer, was the opinion of the Burkers, his comrades. Did
that condemn him? No! He knew no other public opinion till he came to be
hanged, and caught the loathing eyes, and heard the hissing execrations of
the crowd below his gibbet.) So, also, the public opinion of the great is
the opinion of their equals, - of those whom birth and accident cast for
ever in their way. This distinction is full of important practical
deductions; it is one which, more than most maxims, should never be
forgotten by a politician who desires to be profound. It is, then, an
ordeal terrible to pass - which few plebeians ever pass, which it is
therefore unjust to expect patricians to cross unfaulteringly - the ordeal
of opposing the public opinion which exists for them. They cannot help
doubting their own judgment, - they cannot help thinking the voice of
wisdom or of virtue speaks in those sounds which have been deemed oracles
from their cradle. In the tribunal of Sectarian Prejudice they imagine
they recognise the court of the Universal Conscience. Another powerful
antidote to the activity of a patrician so placed, is in the certainty that
to the last the motives of such activity will be alike misconstrued by the
aristocracy he deserts and the people he joins. It seems so unnatural in a
man to fly in the face of his own order, that the world is willing to
suppose any clue to the mystery save that of honest conviction or lofty
patriotism. "Ambition!" says one. "Disappointment!" cries another. "Some
private grudge!" hints a third. "Mob-courting vanity!" sneers a fourth.
The people admire at first, but suspect afterwards. The moment he thwarts
a popular wish, there is no redemption for him: he is accused of having
acted the hypocrite, - of having worn the sheep's fleece: and now, say
they, - "See! the wolf's teeth peep out!" Is he familiar with the people?
- it is cajolery! Is he distant? - it is pride! What, then, sustains a
man in such a situation, following his own conscience, with his eyes opened
to all the perils of the path? Away with the cant of public opinion, -
away with the poor delusion of posthumous justice; he will offend the
first, he will never obtain the last. What sustains him? HIS OWN SOUL! A
man thoroughly great has a certain contempt for his kind while he aids
them: their weal or woe are all; their applause - their blame - are
nothing to him. He walks forth from the circle of birth and habit; he is
deaf to the little motives of little men. High, through the widest space
his orbit may describe, he holds on his course to guide or to enlighten;
but the noises below reach him not! Until the wheel is broken, - until the
dark void swallow up the star, - it makes melody, night and day, to its own
ear: thirsting for no sound from the earth it illumines, anxious for no
companionship in the path through which it rolls, conscious of its own
glory, and contented, therefore, to be alone!
But minds of this order are rare. All ages cannot produce them. They are
exceptions to the ordinary and human virtue, which is influenced and
regulated by external circumstance. At a time when even to be merely
susceptible to the voice of fame was a great pre-eminence in moral energies
over the rest of mankind, it would be impossible that any one should ever
have formed the conception of that more refined and metaphysical sentiment,
that purer excitement to high deeds - that glory in one's own heart, which
is so immeasurably above the desire of a renown that lackeys the heels of
others. In fact, before we can dispense with the world, we must, by a long
and severe novitiate - by the probation of much thought, and much sorrow -
by deep and sad conviction of the vanity of all that the world can give us,
have raised our selves - not in the fervour of an hour, but habitually -
above the world: an abstraction - an idealism - which, in our wiser age,
how few even of the wisest, can attain! Yet, till we are thus fortunate,
we know not the true divinity of contemplation, nor the all-sufficing
mightiness of conscience; nor can we retreat with solemn footsteps into
that Holy of Holies in our own souls, wherein we know, and feel, how much
our nature is capable of the self-existence of a God!
But to return to the things and thoughts of earth. Those considerations,
and those links of circumstance, which, in a similar situation have changed
so many honest and courageous minds, changed also the mind of Adrian. He
felt in a false position. His reason and conscience shared in the schemes
of Rienzi, and his natural hardihood and love of enterprise would have led
him actively to share the danger of their execution. But this, all his
associations, his friendships, his private and household ties, loudly
forbade. Against his order, against his house, against the companions of
his youth, how could he plot secretly, or act sternly? By the goal to
which he was impelled by patriotism, stood hypocrisy and ingratitude. Who
would believe him the honest champion of his country who was a traitor to
his friends? Thus, indeed,
"The native hue of resolution
Was sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought!"
And he who should have been by nature a leader of the time became only its
spectator. Yet Adrian endeavoured to console himself for his present
passiveness in a conviction of the policy of his conduct. He who takes no
share in the commencement of civil revolutions, can often become, with the
most effect, a mediator between the passions and the parties subsequently
formed. Perhaps, under Adrian's circumstances, delay was really the part
of a prudent statesman; the very position which cripples at the first,
often gives authority before the end. Clear from the excesses, and saved
from the jealousies, of rival factions, all men are willing to look with
complaisance and respect to a new actor in a turbulent drama; his
moderation may make him trusted by the people; his rank enable him to be a
fitting mediator with the nobles; and thus the qualities that would have
rendered him a martyr at one period of the Revolution, raise him perhaps
into a saviour at another.
Silent, therefore, and passive, Adrian waited the progress of events. If
the projects of Rienzi failed, he might, by that in activity, the better
preserve the people from new chains, and their champion from death. If
those projects succeeded, he might equally save his house from the popular
wrath - and, advocating liberty, check disorder. Such, at least, were his
hopes; and thus did the Italian sagacity and caution of his character
control and pacify the enthusiasm of youth and courage.
The sun shone, calm and cloudless, upon the vast concourse gathered before
the broad space that surrounds the Church of St. John of Lateran. Partly
by curiosity - partly by the desire of the Bishop of Orvietto - partly
because it was an occasion in which they could display the pomp of their
retinues - many of the principal Barons of Rome had gathered to this spot.
On one of the steps ascending to the church, with his mantle folded round
him, stood Walter de Montreal, gazing on the various parties that, one
after another, swept through the lane which the soldiers of the Church
preserved unimpeded, in the middle of the crowd, for the access of the
principal nobles. He watched with interest, though with his usual
carelessness of air and roving glance, the different marks and looks of
welcome given by the populace to the different personages of note. Banners
and penons preceded each Signor, and, as they waved aloft, the witticisms
or nicknames - the brief words of praise or censure, that imply so much -
which passed to and fro among that lively crowd, were treasured carefully
in his recollection.
"Make way, there! - way for my Lord Martino Orsini - Baron di Porto!"
"Peace, minion! - draw back! way for the Signor Adrian Colonna, Baron di
Castello, and Knight of the Empire."
And at those two rival shouts, you saw waving on high the golden bear of
the Orsini, with the motto - "Beware my embrace!" and the solitary column
on an azure ground, of the Colonna, with Adrian's especial device - "Sad,
but strong." The train of Martino Orsini was much more numerous than that
of Adrian, which last consisted but of ten servitors. But Adrian's men
attracted far greater admiration amongst the crowd, and pleased more the
experienced eye of the warlike Knight of St. John. Their arms were
polished like mirrors; their height was to an inch the same; their march
was regular and sedate; their mien erect; they looked neither to the right
nor left; they betrayed that ineffable discipline - that harmony of order -
which Adrian had learned to impart to his men during his own apprenticeship
of arms. But the disorderly train of the Lord of Porto was composed of men
of all heights. Their arms were ill-polished and ill-fashioned, and they
pressed confusedly on each other; they laughed and spoke aloud; and in
their mien and bearing expressed all the insolence of men who despised
alike the master they served and the people they awed. The two bands
coming unexpectedly on each other through this narrow defile, the jealousy
of the two houses presently declared itself. Each pressed forward for the
precedence; and, as the quiet regularity of Adrian's train, and even its
compact paucity of numbers, enabled it to pass before the servitors of his
rival, the populace set up a loud shout - "A Colonna for ever!" - "Let the
Bear dance after the Column!"
"On, ye knaves!" said Orsini aloud to his men. "How have ye suffered this
affront?" And passing himself to the head of his men, he would have
advanced through the midst of his rival's train, had not a tall guard, in
the Pope's livery, placed his baton in the way.
"Pardon, my Lord! we have the Vicar's express commands to suffer no
struggling of the different trains one with another."
"Knave! dost thou bandy words with me?" said the fierce Orsini; and with
his sword he clove the baton in two.
"In the Vicar's name, I command you to fall back!" said the sturdy guard,
now placing his huge bulk in the very front of the noble's path.
"It is Cecco del Vecchio!" cried those of the populace, who were near
enough to perceive the interruption and its cause.
"Ay," said one, "the good Vicar has put many of the stoutest fellows in the
Pope's livery, in order the better to keep peace. He could have chosen
none better than Cecco."
"But he must not fall!" cried another, as Orsini, glaring on the smith,
drew back his sword as if to plunge it through his bosom.
"Shame - shame! shall the Pope be thus insulted in his own city?" cried
several voices. "Down with the sacrilegious - down!" And, as if by a
preconcerted plan, a whole body of the mob broke at once through the lane,
and swept like a torrent over Orsini and his jostled and ill-assorted
train. Orsini himself was thrown on the ground with violence, and trampled
upon by a hundred footsteps; his men, huddled and struggling as much
against themselves as against the mob, were scattered and overset; and
when, by a great effort of the guards, headed by the smith himself, order
was again restored, and the line reformed, Orsini, well nigh choked with
his rage and humiliation, and greatly bruised by the rude assaults he had
received, could scarcely stir from the ground. The officers of the Pope
raised him, and, when he was on his legs, he looked wildly around for his
sword, which, falling from his hand, had been kicked amongst the crowd, and
seeing it not, he said, between his ground teeth, to Cecco del Vecchio -
"Fellow, thy neck shall answer this outrage, or may God desert me!" and
passed along through the space; while a half-suppressed and exultant hoot
from the bystanders followed his path.
"Way there!" cried the smith, "for the Lord Martino di Porto, and may all
the people know that he has threatened to take my life for the discharge of
my duty in obedience to the Pope's Vicar!"
"He dare not!" shouted out a thousand voices; "the people can protect their
own!"
This scene had not been lost on the Provencal, who well knew how to
construe the wind by the direction of straws, and saw at once, by the
boldness of the populace, that they themselves were conscious of a coming
tempest. "Par Dieu," said he, as he saluted Adrian, who, gravely, and
without looking behind, had now won the steps of the church, "yon tall
fellow has a brave heart, and many friends, too. What think you," he
added, in a low whisper, "is not this scene a proof that the nobles are
less safe than they wot of?"
"The beast begins to kick against the spur, Sir Knight," answered Adrian, "
a wise horseman should, in such a case, take care how he pull the rein too
tight, lest the beast should rear, and he be overthrown - yet that is the
policy thou wouldst recommend."
"You mistake," returned Montreal, "my wish was to give Rome one sovereign
instead of many tyrants, - but hark! what means that bell?"
"The ceremony is about to begin," answered Adrian. "Shall we enter the
church together?"
Seldom had a temple consecrated to God witnessed so singular a spectacle as
that which now animated the solemn space of the Lateran.
In the centre of the church, seats were raised in an amphitheatre, at the
far end of which was a scaffolding, a little higher than the rest; below
this spot, but high enough to be in sight of all the concourse, was placed
a vast table of iron, on which was graven an ancient inscription, and
bearing in its centre a clear and prominent device, presently to be
explained.
The seats were covered with cloth and rich tapestry. In the rear of the
church was drawn a purple curtain. Around the amphitheatre were the
officers of the Church, in the party-coloured liveries of the Pope. To the
right of the scaffold sate Raimond, Bishop of Orvietto, in his robes of
state. On the benches round him you saw all the marked personages of Rome
- the judges, the men of letters, the nobles, from the lofty rank of the
Savelli to the inferior grade of a Raselli. The space beyond the
amphitheatre was filled with the people, who now poured fast in, stream
after stream: all the while rang, clear and loud, the great bell of the
church.
At length, as Adrian and Montreal seated themselves at a little distance
from Raimond, the bell suddenly ceased - the murmurs of the people were
stilled - the purple curtain was withdrawn, and Rienzi came forth with slow
and majestic steps. He came - but not in his usual sombre and plain
attire. Over his broad breast he wore a vest of dazzling whiteness - a
long robe, in the ample fashion of the toga, descended to his feet and
swept the floor. On his head he wore a fold of white cloth, in the centre
of which shone a golden crown. But the crown was divided, or cloven, as it
were, by the mystic ornament of a silver sword, which, attracting the
universal attention, testified at once that this strange garb was worn, not
from the vanity of display, but for the sake of presenting to the concourse
- in the person of the citizen - a type and emblem of that state of the
city on which he was about to descant.
"Faith," whispered one of the old nobles to his neighbour, "the plebeian
assumes it bravely."
"It will be rare sport," said a second. "I trust the good man will put
some jests in his discourse."
"What showman's tricks are these?" said a third.
"He is certainly crazed!" said a fourth.
"How handsome he is!" said the women, mixed with the populace.
"This is a man who has learned the people by heart," observed Montreal to
Adrian. "He knows he must speak to the eye, in order to win the mind: a
knave, - a wise knave!"
And now Rienzi had ascended the scaffold; and as he looked long and
steadfastly around the meeting, the high and thoughtful repose of his
majestic countenance, its deep and solemn gravity, hushed all the murmurs,
and made its effect equally felt by the sneering nobles as the impatient
populace.
"Signors of Rome," said he, at length, "and ye, friends, and citizens, you
have heard why we are met together this day; and you, my Lord Bishop of
Orvietto, - and ye, fellow labourers with me in the field of letters, - ye,
too, are aware that it is upon some matter relative to that ancient Rome,
the rise and the decline of whose past power and glories we have spent our
youth in endeavouring to comprehend. But this, believe me, is no vain
enigma of erudition, useful but to the studious, - referring but to the
dead. Let the Past perish! - let darkness shroud it! - let it sleep for
ever over the crumbling temples and desolate tombs of its forgotten sons, -
if it cannot afford us, from its disburied secrets, a guide for the Present
and the Future. What, my Lords, ye have thought that it was for the sake
of antiquity alone that we have wasted our nights and days in studying what
antiquity can teach us! You are mistaken; it is nothing to know what we
have been, unless it is with the desire of knowing that which we ought to
be. Our ancestors are mere dust and ashes, save when they speak to our
posterity; and then their voices resound, not from the earth below, but the
heaven above. There is an eloquence in Memory, because it is the nurse of
Hope. There is a sanctity in the Past, but only because of the chronicles
it retains, - chronicles of the progress of mankind, - stepping-stones in
civilisation, in liberty, and in knowledge. Our fathers forbid us to
recede, - they teach us what is our rightful heritage, - they bid us
reclaim, they bid us augment, that heritage, - preserve their virtues, and
avoid their errors. These are the true uses of the Past. Like the sacred
edifice in which we are, - it is a tomb upon which to rear a temple. I see
that you marvel at this long beginning; ye look to each other - ye ask to
what it tends. Behold this broad plate of iron; upon it is graven an
inscription but lately disinterred from the heaps of stone and ruin, which
- O shame to Rome! - were once the palaces of empire, and the arches of
triumphant power. The device in the centre of the table, which you behold,
conveys the act of the Roman Senators, - who are conferring upon Vespasian
the imperial authority. It is this inscription which I have invited you to
hear read! It specifies the very terms and limits of the authority thus
conferred. To the Emperor was confided the power of making laws and
alliances with whatsoever nation, - of increasing, or of diminishing the
limits of towns and districts, - of - mark this, my Lords! - exalting men
to the rank of dukes and kings, - ay, and of deposing and degrading them; -
of making cities, and of unmaking: in short, of all the attributes of
imperial power. Yes, to that Emperor was confided this vast authority;
but, by whom? Heed - listen, I pray you - let not a word be lost; - by
whom, I say? By the Roman Senate! What was the Roman Senate? The
Representative of the Roman People!"
"I knew he would come to that!" said the smith, who stood at the door with
his fellows, but to whose ear, clear and distinct, rolled the silver voice
of Rienzi.
"Brave fellow! and this, too, in the hearing of the Lords!"
"Ay, you see what the people were! and we should never have known this but
for him."
"Peace, fellows;" said the officer to those of the crowd, from whom came
these whispered sentences.
Rienzi continued. - "Yes, it is the people who intrusted this power - to
the people, therefore, it belongs! Did the haughty Emperor arrogate the
crown? Could he assume the authority of himself? Was it born with him?
Did he derive it, my Lord Barons, from the possession of towered castles -
of lofty lineage? No! all-powerful as he was, he had no right to one atom
of that power, save from the voice and trust of the Roman people. Such, O
my countrymen! such was even that day, when Liberty was but the shadow of
her former self, - such was the acknowledged prerogative of your fathers!
All power was the gift of the people. What have ye to give now? Who, who,
I say, - what single person, what petty chief, asks you for the authority
he assumes? His senate is his sword; his chart of license is written, not
with ink, but blood. The people! - there is no people! Oh! would to God
that we might disentomb the spirit of the Past as easily as her records!"
"If I were your kinsman," whispered Montreal to Adrian, "I would give this
man short breathing-time between his peroration and confession."
"What is your Emperor?" continued Rienzi; "a stranger! What the great head
of your Church? - an exile! Ye are without your lawful chiefs; and why?
Because ye are not without your law-defying tyrants! The licence of your
nobles, their discords, their dissensions, have driven our Holy Father from
the heritage of St. Peter; - they have bathed your streets in your own
blood; they have wasted the wealth of your labours on private quarrels and
the maintenance of hireling ruffians! Your forces are exhausted against
yourselves. You have made a mockery of your country, once the mistress of
the world. You have steeped her lips in gall - ye have set a crown of
thorns upon her head! What, my Lords!" cried he, turning sharply round
towards the Savelli and Orsini, who, endeavouring to shake off the thrill
which the fiery eloquence of Rienzi had stricken to their hearts, now, by
contemptuous gestures and scornful smiles, testified the displeasure they
did not dare loudly to utter in the presence of the Vicar and the people. -
"What! even while I speak - not the sanctity of this place restrains you!
I am an humble man - a citizen of Rome; - but I have this distinction: I
have raised against myself many foes and scoffers for that which I have
done for Rome. I am hated, because I love my country; I am despised,
because I would exalt her. I retaliate - I shall be avenged. Three
traitors in your own palaces shall betray you: their names are - Luxury,
Envy, and Dissension!"
"There he had them on the hip!"
"Ha, ha! by the Holy Cross, that was good!"
"I would go to the hangman for such another keen stroke as that!"
"It is a shame if we are cowards, when one man is thus brave," said the
smith.
"This is the man we have always wanted!"
"Silence!" proclaimed the officer.
"O Romans!" resumed Rienzi, passionately - "awake! I conjure you! Let
this memorial of your former power - your ancient liberties - sink deep
into your souls. In a propitious hour, if ye seize it, - in an evil one,
if ye suffer the golden opportunity to escape, - has this record of the
past been unfolded to your eyes. Recollect that the Jubilee approaches."
The Bishop of Orvietto smiled, and bowed approvingly; the people, the
citizens, the inferior nobles, noted well those signs of encouragement;
and, to their minds, the Pope himself, in the person of his Vicar, looked
benignly on the daring of Rienzi.
"The Jubilee approaches, - the eyes of all Christendom will be directed
hither. Here, where, from all quarters of the globe, men come for peace,
shall they find discord? - seeking absolution, shall they perceive but
crime? In the centre of God's dominion, shall they weep at your weakness?
- in the seat of the martyred saints, shall they shudder at your vices? -
in the fountain and source of Christ's law, shall they find all law
unknown? You were the glory of the world - will you be its by-word? You
were its example - will you be its warning? Rise, while it is yet time! -
clear your roads from the bandits that infest them! - your walls from the
hirelings that they harbour! Banish these civil discords, or the men - how
proud, how great, soever - who maintain them! Pluck the scales from the
hand of Fraud! - the sword from the hand of Violence! - the balance and the
sword are the ancient attributes of Justice! - restore them to her again!
This be your high task, - these be your great ends! Deem any man who
opposes them a traitor to his country. Gain a victory greater than those
of the Caesars - a victory over yourselves! Let the pilgrims of the world
behold the resurrection of Rome! Make one epoch of the Jubilee of Religion
and the Restoration of Law! Lay the sacrifice of your vanquished passions
- the first-fruits of your renovated liberties - upon the very altar that
these walls contain! and never! oh, never! since the world began, shall men
have made a more grateful offering to their God!"
So intense was the sensation these words created in the audience - so
breathless and overpowered did they leave the souls with they took by storm
- that Rienzi had descended the scaffold, and already disappeared behind
the curtain from which he had emerged, ere the crowd were fully aware that
he had ceased.
The singularity of this sudden apparition - robed in mysterious splendour,
and vanishing the moment its errand was fulfilled - gave additional effect
to the words it had uttered. The whole character of that bold address
became invested with a something preternatural and inspired; to the minds
of the vulgar, the mortal was converted into the oracle; and, marvelling at
the unhesitating courage with which their idol had rebuked and conjured the
haughty barons, - each of whom they regarded in the light of sanctioned
executioners, whose anger could be made manifest at once by the gibbet or
the axe, - the people could not but superstitiously imagine that nothing
less than authority from above could have gifted their leader with such
hardihood, and preserved him from the danger it incurred. In fact, it was
in this very courage of Rienzi that his safety consisted; he was placed in
those circumstances where audacity is prudence. Had he been less bold, the
nobles would have been more severe; but so great a license of speech in an
officer of the Holy See, they naturally imagined, was not unauthorised by
the assent of the Pope, as well as by the approbation of the people. Those
who did not (like Stephen Colonna) despise words as wind, shrank back from
the task of punishing one whose voice might be the mere echo of the wishes
of the pontiff. The dissensions of the nobles among each other, were no
less favourable to Rienzi. He attacked a body, the members of which had no
union.
"It is not my duty to slay him!" said one.
"I am not the representative of the barons!" said another.
"If Stephen Colonna heeds him not, it would be absurd, as well as
dangerous, in a meaner man to make himself the champion of the order!" said
a third.
The Colonna smiled approval, when Rienzi denounced an Orsini - an Orsini
laughed aloud, when the eloquence burst over a Colonna. The lesser nobles
were well pleased to hear attacks upon both: while, on the other hand, the
Bishop, by the long impunity of Rienzi, had taken courage to sanction the
conduct of his fellow-officer. He affected, indeed, at times, to blame the
excess of his fervour, but it was always accompanied by the praises of his
honesty; and the approbation of the Pope's Vicar confirmed the impression
of the nobles as to the approbation of the Pope. Thus, from the very
rashness of his enthusiasm had grown his security and success.
Still, however, when the barons had a little recovered from the stupor into
which Rienzi had cast them, they looked round to each other; and their
looks confessed their sense of the insolence of the orator, and the affront
offered to themselves.
"Per fede!" quoth Reginaldo di Orsini, "this is past bearing, - the
plebeian has gone too far!"
"Look at the populace below! how they murmur and gape, - and how their eyes
sparkle - and what looks they bend at us!" said Luca di Savelli to his
mortal enemy, Castruccio Malatesta: the sense of a common danger united in
one moment, but only for a moment, the enmity of years.
"Diavolo!" muttered Raselli (Nina's father) to a baron, equally poor, "but
the clerk has truth in his lips. 'Tis a pity he is not noble."
"What a clever brain marred!" said a Florentine merchant. "That man might
be something, if he were sufficiently rich."
Adrian and Montreal were silent: the first seemed lost in thought, - the
last was watching the various effects produced upon the audience.
"Silence!" proclaimed the officers. "Silence, for my Lord Vicar."
At this announcement, every eye turned to Raimond, who, rising with much
clerical importance, thus addressed the assembly: -
"Although, Barons and Citizens of Rome, my well-beloved flock, and
children, - I, no more than yourselves, anticipated the exact nature of the
address ye have just heard, - and, albeit, I cannot feel unalloyed
contentment at the manner, nor, I may say, at the whole matter of that
fervent exhortation - yet (laying great emphasis on the last word), I
cannot suffer you to depart without adding to the prayers of our Holy
Father's servant, those, also, of his Holiness's spiritual representative.
It is true! the Jubilee approaches! The Jubilee approaches - and yet our
roads, even to the gates of Rome, are infested with murderous and godless
ruffians! What pilgrim can venture across the Apennines to worship at the
altars of St. Peter? The Jubilee approaches: what scandal shall it be to
Rome if these shrines be without pilgrims - if the timid recoil from, if
the bold fall victims to, the dangers of the way! Wherefore, I pray you
all, citizens and chiefs alike, - I pray you all to lay aside those unhappy
dissensions which have so long consumed the strength of our sacred city;
and, uniting with each other in the ties of amity and brotherhood, to form
a blessed league against the marauders of the road. I see amongst you, my
Lords, many of the boasts and pillars of the state; but, alas! I think with
grief and dismay on the causeless and idle hatred that has grown up between
you! - a scandal to our city, and reflecting, let me add, my Lords, no
honour on your faith as Christians, nor on your dignity as defenders of the
Church."
Amongst the inferior nobles - along the seats of the judges and the men of
letters - through the vast concourse of the people - ran a loud murmur of
approbations at these words. The greater barons looked proudly, but not
contemptuously, at the countenance of the prelate, and preserved a strict
and unrevealing silence.
"In this holy spot," continued the Bishop, "let me beseech you to bury
those fruitless animosities which have already cost enough of blood and
treasure; and let us quit these walls with one common determination to
evince our courage and display our chivalry only against our universal
foes; - those ruffians who lay waste our fields, and infest our public
ways, - the foes alike of the people we should protect, and the God whom we
should serve!"
The Bishop resumed his seat; the nobles looked at each other without reply;
the people began to whisper loudly among themselves; when, after a short
pause, Adrian di Castello rose.
"Pardon me, my Lords, and you, reverend Father, if I, inexperienced in
years and of little mark or dignity amongst you, presume to be the first to
embrace the proposal we have just heard. Willingly do I renounce all
ancient cause of enmity with any of my compeers. Fortunately for me, my
long absence from Rome has swept from my remembrance the feuds and
rivalries familiar to my early youth; and in this noble conclave I see but
one man (glancing at Martino di Porto, who sat sullenly looking down)
against whom I have, at any time, deemed it a duty to draw my sword; the
gage that I once cast to that noble is yet, I rejoice to think, unredeemed.
I withdraw it. Henceforth my only foes shall be the foes of Rome!"
"Nobly spoken!" said the Bishop, aloud.
"And," continued Adrian, casting down his glove amongst the nobles, "I
throw, my Lords, the gage, thus resumed, amongst you all, in challenge to a
wider rivalry, and a more noble field. I invite any man to vie with me in
the zeal that he shall show to restore tranquillity to our roads, and order
to our state. It is a contest in which, if I be vanquished with
reluctance, I will yield the prize without envy. In ten days from this
time, reverend Father, I will raise forty horsemen-at-arms, ready to obey
whatever orders shall be agreed upon for the security of the Roman state.
And you, O Romans, dismiss, I pray you, from your minds, those eloquent
invectives against your fellow-citizens which ye have lately heard. All of
us, of what rank soever, may have shared in the excesses of these unhappy
times; let us endeavour, not to avenge nor to imitate, but to reform and to
unite. And may the people hereafter find, that the true boast of a
patrician is, that his power the better enables him to serve his country."
"Brave words!" quoth the smith, sneeringly.
"If they were all like him!" said the smith's neighbour.
"He has helped the nobles out of a dilemma," said Pandulfo.
"He has shown grey wit under young hairs," said an aged Malatesta.
"You have turned the tide, but not stemmed it, noble Adrian," whispered the
ever-boding Montreal, as, amidst the murmurs of the general approbation,
the young Colonna resumed his seat.
"How mean you?" said Adrian.
"That your soft words, like all patrician conciliations, have come too
late."
Not another noble stirred, though they felt, perhaps, disposed to join in
the general feeling of amnesty, and appeared, by signs and whispers, to
applaud the speech of Adrian. They were too habituated to the
ungracefulness of an unlettered pride, to bow themselves to address
conciliating language either to the people or their foes. And Raimond,
glancing round, and not willing that their unseemly silence should be long
remarked, rose at once, to give it the best construction in his power.
"My son, thou hast spoken as a patriot and a Christian; by the approving
silence of your peers we all feel that they share your sentiments. Break
we up the meeting - its end is obtained. The manner of our proceeding
against the leagued robbers of the road requires maturer consideration
elsewhere. This day shall be an epoch in our history."
"It shall," quoth Cecco del Vecchio, gruffly, between his teeth.
"Children, my blessing upon you all!" concluded the Vicar, spreading his
arms.
And in a few minutes more the crowd poured from the church. The different
servitors and flag-bearers ranged themselves on the steps without, each
train anxious for their master's precedence; and the nobles, gravely
collecting in small knots, in the which was no mixture of rival blood,
followed the crowd down the aisles. Soon rose again the din, and the
noise, and the wrangling, and the oaths, of the hostile bands, as, with
pain and labour, the Vicar's officers marshalled them in "order most
disorderly."
But so true were Montreal's words to Adrian, that the populace already half
forgot the young noble's generous appeal, and were only bitterly commenting
on the ungracious silence of his brother Lords. What, too, to them was
this crusade against the robbers of the road? They blamed the good Bishop
for not saying boldly to the nobles - "Ye are the first robbers we must
march against!" The popular discontents had gone far beyond palliatives;
they had arrived at that point when the people longed less for reform than
change. There are times when a revolution cannot be warded off; it must
come - come alike by resistance or by concession. Wo to that race in which
a revolution produces no fruits! - in which the thunderbolt smites the high
place, but does not purify the air! To suffer in vain is often the lot of
the noblest individuals; but when a People suffer in vain, let them curse
themselves!
