the monarch and must force on himself, or his successors, in the career of improvement so signally begun.  In the character of the people, the vigour of the Northman ennobles the ardour and fancy of the West.  In the position of the country, the public mind is brought into constant communication with the new ideas in the free lands of Europe.  Civilisation sets in direct currents towards the streets and marts of Turin.  Whatever the result of the present crisis in Italy, no power and no chance which statesmen can predict, can preclude Sardinia from ultimately heading all that is best in Italy.  The King may improve his present position, or peculiar prejudices, inseparable perhaps from the heritage of absolute monarchy, and which the raw and rude councils of an Electoral Chamber, newly called into life, must often irritate and alarm, may check his own progress towards the master throne of the Ausonian land.  But the people themselves, sooner or later, will do the work of the King.  And in now looking round Italy for a race worthy of Rienzi, and able to accomplish his proud dreams, I see but one for which the time is ripe or ripening, and I place the hopes of Italy in the men of Piedmont and Sardinia.

London, February 14, 1848.

Rienzi, The Last of the Tribunes.

BOOK I. —­ THE TIME, THE PLACE, AND THE MEN.

“Fu da sua gioventudine nutricato di latte di eloquenza; buono grammatico, megliore rettorico, autorista buono...Oh, come spesso diceva, ’Dove sono questi buoni Romani?  Dov’e loro somma giustizia?  Poterommi trovare in tempo che questi fioriscano?’ Era bell ’omo...Accadde che uno suo frate fu ucciso, e non ne fu fatta vendetta di sua morte:  non lo poteo aiutare; pensa lungo mano vendicare ’l sangue di suo frate; pensa lunga mano dirizzare la cittate di Roma male guidata.”—­“Vita di Cola di Rienzi” Ed. 1828.  Forli.

“From his youth he was nourished with the milk of eloquence; a good grammarian, a better rhetorician, well versed in the writings of authors...Oh, how often would he say, ’Where are those good Romans?  Where is their supreme justice?  Shall I ever behold such times as those in which they flourished?’ He was a handsome man...It happened that a brother of his was slain, and no retribution was made for his death:  he could not help him; long did he ponder how to avenge his brother’s blood; long did he ponder how to direct the ill guided state of Rome.”—­“Life of Cola di Rienzi.”

Chapter 1.I.  The Brothers.

The celebrated name which forms the title to this work will sufficiently apprise the reader that it is in the earlier half of the fourteenth century that my story opens.