Chapter 4.VII. The Festival.
The Festival of that day was far the most sumptuous hitherto known. The
hint of Cecco del Vecchio, which so well depicted the character of his
fellow-citizens, as yet it exists, though not to such excess, in their love
of holyday pomp and gorgeous show, was not lost upon Rienzi. One instance
of the universal banqueting (intended, indeed, rather for the people than
the higher ranks) may illustrate the more than royal profusion that
prevailed. From morn till eve, streams of wine flowed like a fountain from
the nostrils of the Horse of the great Equestrian Statue of Constantine.
The mighty halls of the Lateran palace, open to all ranks, were prodigally
spread; and the games, sports, and buffooneries of the time, were in ample
requisition. Apart, the Tribunessa, as Nina was rather unclassically
entitled, entertained the dames of Rome; while the Tribune had so
effectually silenced or conciliated Raimond, that the good Bishop shared
his peculiar table - the only one admitted to that honour. As the eye
ranged each saloon and hall - it beheld the space lined with all the
nobility and knighthood - the wealth and strength - the learning and the
beauty - of the Italian metropolis; mingled with ambassadors and noble
strangers, even from beyond the Alps; (The simple and credulous briographer
of Rienzi declares his fame to have reached the ears of the Soldan of
Babylon.) - envoys not only of the free states that had welcomed the rise
of the Tribune, but of the highborn and haughty tyrants who had first
derided his arrogance, and now cringed to his power. There, were not only
the ambassadors of Florence, of Sienna, of Arezzo (which last subjected its
government to the Tribune,) of Todi, of Spoleto, and of countless other
lesser towns and states, but of the dark and terrible Visconti, prince of
Milan; of Obizzo of Ferrara, and the tyrant rulers of Verona and Bologna;
even the proud and sagacious Malatesta, lord of Rimini, whose arm
afterwards broke for awhile the power of Montreal, at the head of his Great
Company, had deputed his representative in his most honoured noble. John
di Vico, the worst and most malignant despot of his day, who had sternly
defied the arms of the Tribune, now subdued and humbled, was there in
person; and the ambassadors of Hungary and of Naples mingled with those of
Bavaria and Bohemia, whose sovereigns that day had been cited to the Roman
Judgment Court. The nodding of plumes, the glitter of jewels and cloth of
gold, the rustling of silks and jingle of golden spurs, the waving of
banners from the roof, the sounds of minstrelsy from the galleries above,
all presented a picture of such power and state - a court and chivalry of
such show - as the greatest of the feudal kings might have beheld with a
sparkling eye and a swelling heart. But at that moment the cause and lord
of all that splendour, recovered from his late exhilaration, sat moody and
abstracted, remembering with a thoughtful brow the adventure of the past
night, and sensible that amongst his gaudiest revellers lurked his intended
murtherers. Amidst the swell of the minstrelsy and the pomp of the crowd,
he felt that treason scowled beside him; and the image of the skeleton
obtruding, as of old, its grim thought of death upon the feast, darkened
the ruby of the wine, and chilled the glitter of the scene.
It was while the feast was loudest that Rienzi's page was seen gliding
through the banquet, and whispering several of the nobles; each bowed low,
but changed colour as he received the message.
"My Lord Savelli," said Orsini, himself trembling, "bear yourself more
bravely. This must be meant in honour, not revenge. I suppose your
summons corresponds with mine."
"He - he - asks - asks - me to supper at the Capitol; a fri-endly meeting -
(pest on his friendship!) - after the noise of the day."
"The words addressed also to me!" said Orsini, turning to one of the
Frangipani.
Those who received the summons soon broke from the feast, and collected in
a group, eagerly conferring. Some were for flight, but flight was
confession; their number, rank, long and consecrated impunity, reassured
them, and they resolved to obey. The old Colonna, the sole innocent Baron
of the invited guests, was also the only one who refused the invitation.
"Tush!" said he, peevishly; here is feasting enough for one day! Tell the
Tribune that ere he sups I hope to be asleep. Grey hairs cannot encounter
all this fever of festivity."
As Rienzi rose to depart, which he did early, for the banquet took place
while yet morning, Raimond, eager to escape and confer with some of his
spiritual friends, as to the report he should make to the Pontiff, was
beginning his expressions of farewell, when the merciless Tribune said to
him gravely -
"My Lord, we want you on urgent business at the Capitol. A prisoner - a
trial - perhaps (he added with his portentous and prophetic frown) an
execution waits us! Come."
"Verily, Tribune," stammered the good Bishop, "this is a strange time for
execution!"
"Last night was a time yet more strange. - Come."
There was something in the way in which the final word was pronounced, that
Raimond could not resist. He sighed, muttered, twitched his robes, and
followed the Tribune. As he passed through the halls, the company rose on
all sides. Rienzi repaid their salutations with smiles and whispers of
frank courtesy and winning address. Young as he yet was, and of a handsome
and noble presence, that took every advantage from splendid attire, and yet
more from an appearance of intellectual command in his brow and eye, which
the less cultivated signors of that dark age necessarily wanted - he
glittered through the court as one worthy to form, and fitted to preside
over, it; and his supposed descent from the Teuton Emperor, which, since
his greatness, was universally bruited and believed abroad, seemed
undeniably visible to the foreign lords in the majesty of his mien and the
easy blandness of his address.
"My Lord Prefect," said he to a dark and sullen personage in black velvet,
the powerful and arrogant John di Vico, prefect of Rome, "we are rejoiced
to find so noble a guest at Rome: we must repay the courtesy by surprising
you in your own palace ere long; - nor will you, Signor (as he turned to
the envoy from Tivoli,) refuse us a shelter amidst your groves and
waterfalls ere the vintage be gathered. Methinks Rome, united with sweet
Tivoli, grows reconciled to the Muses. Your suit is carried, Master
Venoni: the council recognises its justice; but I reserved the news for
this holyday - you do not blame me, I trust." This was whispered, with a
half-affectionate frankness, to a worthy citizen, who, finding himself
amidst so many of the great, would have shrunk from the notice of the
Tribune; but it was the policy of Rienzi to pay an especial and marked
attention to those engaged in commercial pursuits. As, after tarrying a
moment or two with the merchant, he passed on, the tall person of the old
Colonna caught his eye -
"Signor," said he, with a profound inclination of his head, but with a
slight emphasis of tone, "you will not fail us this evening."
"Tribune - " began the Colonna.
"We receive no excuse," interrupted the Tribune, hastily, and passed on.
He halted for a few moments before a small group of men plainly attired,
who were watching him with intense interest; for they, too, were scholars,
and in Rienzi's rise they saw another evidence of that wonderful and sudden
power which intellect had begun to assume over brute force. With these, as
if abruptly mingled with congenial spirits, the Tribune relaxed all the
gravity of his brow. Happier, perhaps, his living career - more
unequivocal his posthumous renown - had his objects as his tastes been
theirs!
"Ah, carissime!" said he to one, whose arm he drew within his own, - "and
how proceeds thy interpretation of the old marbles? - half unravelled? I
rejoice to hear it! Confer with me as of old, I pray thee. Tomorrow - no,
nor the day after, but next week - we will have a tranquil evening. Dear
poet, your ode transported me to the days of Horace; yet, methinks, we do
wrong to reject the vernacular for the Latin. You shake your head? Well,
Petrarch thinks with you: his great epic moves with the stride of a giant
- so I hear from his friend and envoy, - and here he is. My Laeluis, is
that not your name with Petrarch? How shall I express my delight at his
comforting, his inspiring letter? Alas! he overrates not my intentions,
but my power. Of this hereafter."
A slight shade darkened the Tribune's brow at these words: but moving on,
a long line of nobles and princes on either side, he regained his self-
possession, and the dignity he had dropped with his former equals. Thus he
passed through the crowd, and gradually disappeared.
"He bears him bravely," said one, as the revellers reseated themselves.
"Noticed you the 'we' - the style royal?"
"But it must be owned that he lords it well," said the ambassador of the
Visconti: "less pride would be cringing to his haughty court."
"Why," said a professor of Bologna, "why is the Tribune called proud? I
see no pride in him."
"Nor I," said a wealthy jeweller.
While these, and yet more contradictory, comments followed the exit of the
Tribune, he passed into the saloon, where Nina presided; and here his fair
person and silver tongue ("Suavis colorataeque sententiae," according to
the description of Petrarch) won him a more general favour with the matrons
than he experienced with their lords, and not a little contrasted the
formal and nervous compliments of the good Bishop, who served him on such
occasions with an excellent foil.
But as soon as these ceremonies were done, and Rienzi mounted his horse,
his manner changed at once into a stern and ominous severity.
"Vicar," said he, abruptly, to the Bishop, "we might well need your
presence. Learn that at the Capitol now sits the Council in judgment upon
an assassin. Last night, but for Heaven's mercy, I should have fallen a
victim to a hireling's dagger, Knew you aught of this?"
And he turned so sharply on the Bishop, that the poor canonist nearly
dropped from his horse in surprise and terror.
"I, - " said he.
Rienzi smiled - "No, good my Lord Bishop! I see you are of no murtherer's
mould. But to continue: - that I might not appear to act in mine own
cause, I ordered the prisoner to be tried in my absence. In his trial (you
marked the letter brought me at our banquet?) - "
"Ay, and you changed colour."
"Well I might: in his trial, I say, he has confessed that nine of the
loftiest lords of Rome were his instigators. They sup with me tonight! -
Vicar, forwards!"
BOOK V. THE CRISIS.
"Questo ha acceso 'i fuoco e la fiamma laquale non la par spotegnere." -
"Vita di Cola di Rienzi", lib. i. cap. 29.
"He has kindled fire and flames which he will not be able to extinguish." -
"Life of Cola di Rienzi".
