Rienzi

E >> Edward Bulwer Lytton >> Rienzi


"Hush!" said Arimbaldo, "walls have ears, and that imp of Satan, young
Villani, seems to me ever at our heels!"

"A thousand florins! I trust his heart hath as many drops," growled the
chafed Brettone, unheeding his brother.

The soldiers were paid--the army marched--the eloquence of the Senator
had augmented his force by volunteers from Tivoli, and wild and
half armed peasantry joined his standard from the Campagna and the
neighbouring mountains.

Palestrina was besieged: Rienzi continued dexterously to watch the
brothers of Montreal. Under pretext of imparting to the Italian
volunteers the advantage of their military science, he separated them
from their mercenaries, and assigned to them the command of the less
disciplined Italians, with whom, he believed, they could not venture
to tamper. He himself assumed the lead of the Northmen--and, despite
themselves, they were fascinated by his artful, yet dignified
affability, and the personal courage he displayed in some sallies of the
besieged Barons. But as the huntsmen upon all the subtlest windings of
their prey,--so pressed the relentless and speeding Fates upon Cola di
Rienzi!



Chapter 9.VI. The Events Gather to the End.

While this the state of the camp of the besiegers, Luca di Savelli and
Stefanello Colonna were closeted with a stranger, who had privately
entered Palestrina on the night before the Romans pitched their tents
beneath its walls. This visitor, who might have somewhat passed his
fortieth year, yet retained, scarcely diminished, the uncommon beauty of
form and countenance for which his youth had been remarkable. But it was
no longer that character of beauty which has been described in his first
introduction to the reader. It was no longer the almost woman delicacy
of feature and complexion, or the highborn polish, and graceful suavity
of manner, which distinguished Walter de Montreal: a life of vicissitude
and war had at length done its work. His bearing was now abrupt and
imperious, as that of one accustomed to rule wild spirits, and he had
exchanged the grace of persuasion for the sternness of command. His
athletic form had grown more spare and sinewy, and instead of the brow
half shaded by fair and clustering curls, his forehead, though yet
but slightly wrinkled, was completely bald at the temples; and by its
unwonted height, increased the dignity and manliness of his aspect. The
bloom of his complexion was faded, less by outward exposure than inward
thought, into a bronzed and settled paleness; and his features seemed
more marked and prominent, as the flesh had somewhat sunk from the
contour of the cheek. Yet the change suited the change of age and
circumstance; and if the Provencal now less realised the idea of
the brave and fair knight-errant, he but looked the more what the
knight-errant had become--the sagacious counsellor and the mighty
leader.

"You must be aware," said Montreal, continuing a discourse which
appeared to have made great impression on his companions, "that in this
contest between yourselves and the Senator, I alone hold the balance.
Rienzi is utterly in my power--my brothers, the leaders of his army;
myself, his creditor. It rests with me to secure him on the throne, or
to send him to the scaffold. I have but to give the order, and the Grand
Company enter Rome; but without their agency, methinks if you keep faith
with me, our purpose can be effected."

"In the meanwhile, Palestrina is besieged by your brothers!" said
Stefanello, sharply.

"But they have my orders to waste their time before its walls. Do you
not see, that by this very siege, fruitless, as, if I will, it shall be,
Rienzi loses fame abroad, and popularity in Rome."

"Sir Knight," said Luca di Savelli, "you speak as a man versed in the
profound policy of the times; and under all the circumstances which
menace us, your proposal seems but fitting and reasonable. On the one
hand, you undertake to restore us and the other Barons to Rome; and to
give Rienzi to the Staircase of the Lion--"

"Not so, not so," replied Montreal, quickly. "I will consent either so
to subdue and cripple his power, as to render him a puppet in our hands,
a mere shadow of authority--or, if his proud spirit chafe at its cage,
to give it once more liberty amongst the wilds of Germany. I would
fetter or banish him, but not destroy; unless (added Montreal, after a
moment's pause) fate absolutely drives us to it. Power should not demand
victims; but to secure it, victims may be necessary."

"I understand your refinements," said Luca di Savelli, with his icy
smile, "and am satisfied. The Barons once restored, our palaces once
more manned, and I am willing to take the chance of the Senator's
longevity. This service you promise to effect?"

"I do."

"And, in return, you demand our assent to your enjoying the rank of
Podesta for five years?"

"You say right."

"I, for one, accede to the terms," said the Savelli: "there is my hand;
I am wearied of these brawls, even amongst ourselves, and think that a
Foreign Ruler may best enforce order: the more especially, if like
you, Sir Knight, one whose birth and renown are such as to make him
comprehend the difference between Barons and Plebeians."

"For my part," said Stefanello, "I feel that we have but a choice of
evils--I like not a foreign Podesta; but I like a plebeian Senator still
less;--there too is my hand, Sir Knight."

"Noble Signors," said Montreal, after a short pause, and turning his
piercing gaze from one to the other with great deliberation, "our
compact is sealed; one word by way of codicil. Walter de Montreal is no
Count Pepin of Minorbino! Once before, little dreaming, I own, that the
victory would be so facile, I intrusted your cause and mine to a deputy;
your cause he promoted, mine he lost. He drove out the Tribune, and
then suffered the Barons to banish himself. This time I see to my own
affairs; and, mark you, I have learned in the Grand Company one lesson;
viz. never to pardon spy or deserter, of whatever rank. Your forgiveness
for the hint. Let us change the theme. So ye detain in your fortress my
old friend the Baron di Castello?"

"Ay," said Luca di Savelli; for Stefanello, stung by Montreal's threat,
which he dared not openly resent, preserved a sullen silence; "Ay, he is
one noble the less to the Senator's council."

"You act wisely. I know his views and temper; at present dangerous to
our interests. Yet use him well, I entreat you; he may hereafter serve
us. And now, my Lords, my eyes are weary, suffer me to retire. Pleasant
dreams of the New Revolution to us all!"

"By your leave, noble Montreal, we will attend you to your couch," said
Luca di Savelli.

"By my troth, and ye shall not. I am no Tribune to have great Signors
for my pages; but a plain gentleman, and a hardy soldier: your
attendants will conduct me to whatever chamber your hospitality assigns
to one who could sleep soundly beneath the rudest hedge under your open
skies."

Savelli, however, insisted on conducting the Podesta that was to be, to
his apartment. He then returned to Stefanello, whom he found pacing the
saloon with long and disordered strides.

"What have we done, Savelli?" said he, quickly; "sold our city to a
barbarian!"

"Sold!" said Savelli; "to my mind it is the other part of the contract
in which we have played our share. We have bought, Colonna, not
sold--bought our lives from yon army; bought our power, our fortunes,
our castles, from the Demagogue Senator; bought, what is better than
all, triumph and revenge. Tush, Colonna, see you not that if we had
balked this great warrior, we had perished? Leagued with the Senator,
the Grand Company would have marched to Rome; and, whether Montreal
assisted or murdered Rienzi, (for methinks he is a Romulus, who would
brook no Remus), we had equally been undone. Now, we have made our own
terms, and our shares are equal. Nay, the first steps to be taken are in
our favour. Rienzi is to be snared, and we are to enter Rome."

"And then the Provencal is to be Despot of the city."

"Podesta, if you please. Podestas who offend the people are often
banished, and sometimes stoned--Podestas who insult the nobles are often
stilettoed, and sometimes poisoned," said Savelli. "'Sufficient for the
day is the evil thereof.' Meanwhile, say nothing to the bear, Orsini.
Such men mar all wisdom. Come, cheer thee, Stefanello."

"Luca di Savelli, you have not such a stake in Rome as I have," said
the young Lord, haughtily; "no Podesta can take from you the rank of the
first Signor of the Italian metropolis!"

"An you had said so to the Orsini, there would have been drawing of
swords," said Savelli. "But cheer thee, I say; is not our first care to
destroy Rienzi, and then, between the death of one foe and the rise of
another, are there not such preventives as Ezzelino da Romano has taught
to wary men? Cheer thee, I say; and, next year, if we but hold together,
Stefanello Colonna and Luca di Savelli will be joint Senators of Rome,
and these great men food for worms!"

While thus conferred the Barons, Montreal, ere he retired to rest, stood
gazing from the open lattice of his chamber over the landscape below,
which slept in the autumnal moonlight, while at a distance gleamed, pale
and steady, the lights round the encampment of the besiegers.

"Wide plains and broad valleys," thought the warrior, "soon shall ye
repose in peace beneath a new sway, against which no petty tyrant
shall dare rebel. And ye, white walls of canvass, even while I gaze--ye
admonish me how realms are won. Even as, of old, from the Nomad tents
was built up the stately Babylon, (Isaiah, c. xxii.) that 'was not till
the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness;' so by
the new Ishmaelites of Europe shall a race, undreamt of now, be founded;
and the camp of yesterday, be the city of tomorrow. Verily, when, for
one soft offence, the Pontiff thrust me from the bosom of the Church,
little guessed he what enemy he raised to Rome! How solemn is the
night!--how still the heavens and earth!--the very stars are as hushed,
as if intent on the events that are to pass below! So solemn and so
still feels mine own spirit, and an awe unknown till now warns me that I
approach the crisis of my daring fate!"




BOOK X. THE LION Of BASALT.

"Ora voglio contare la morte del Tribuno."--("Vita di Cola di
Rienzi", lib. ii. cap. 24.)

"Now will I narrate the death of the Tribune."--"Life of
Cola di Rienzi".



Chapter 10.I. The Conjunction of Hostile Planets in the House of Death.

On the fourth day of the siege, and after beating back to those almost
impregnable walls the soldiery of the Barons, headed by the Prince of
the Orsini, the Senator returned to his tent, where despatches from Rome
awaited him. He ran his eye hastily over them, till he came to the last;
yet each contained news that might have longer delayed the eye of a man
less inured to danger. From one he learned that Albornoz, whose blessing
had confirmed to him the rank of Senator, had received with special
favour the messengers of the Orsini and Colonna. He knew that the
Cardinal, whose views connected him with the Roman Patricians, desired
his downfall; but he feared not Albornoz: perhaps in his secret heart
he wished that any open aggression from the Pontiff's Legate might throw
him wholly on the people.

He learned further, that, short as had been his absence, Pandulfo di
Guido had twice addressed the populace, not in favour of the Senator,
but in artful regrets of the loss to the trade of Rome in the absence of
her wealthiest nobles.

"For this, then, he has deserted me," said Rienzi to himself. "Let him
beware!"

The tidings contained in the next touched him home: Walter de Montreal
had openly arrived in Rome. The grasping and lawless bandit, whose
rapine filled with a robber's booty every bank in Europe--whose
Company was the army of a King--whose ambition, vast, unprincipled,
and profound, he so well knew--whose brothers were in his camp--their
treason already more than suspected;--Walter de Montreal was in Rome!

The Senator remained perfectly aghast at this new peril; and then said,
setting his teeth as in a vice,

"Wild tiger, thou art in the Lion's den!" Then pausing, he broke out
again, "One false step, Walter de Montreal, and all the mailed hands of
the Grand Company shall not pluck thee from the abyss! But what can I
do? Return to Rome--the plans of Montreal unpenetrated--no accusation
against him! On what pretence can I with honour raise the siege? To
leave Palestrina, is to give a triumph to the Barons--to abandon Adrian,
to degrade my cause. Yet, while away from Rome, every hour breeds
treason and danger. Pandulfo, Albornoz, Montreal--all are at
work against me. A keen and trusty spy, now;--ha, well thought
of--Villani!--What, ho--Angelo Villani!"

The young chamberlain appeared.

"I think," said Rienzi, "to have often heard, that thou art an orphan?"

"True, my Lord; the old Augustine nun who reared my boyhood, has told me
again and again that my parents are dead. Both noble, my Lord; but I am
the child of shame. And I say it often, and think of it ever, in order
to make Angelo Villani remember that he has a name to win."

"Young man, serve me as you have served, and if I live you shall have no
need to call yourself an orphan. Mark me! I want a friend--the Senator
of Rome wants a friend--only one friend--gentle Heaven! only one!"

Angelo sank on his knee, and kissed the mantle of his Lord.

"Say a follower. I am too mean to be Rienzi's friend."

"Too mean!--go to!--there is nothing mean before God, unless it be a
base soul under high titles. With me, boy, there is but one nobility,
and Nature signs its charter. Listen: thou hearest daily of Walter de
Montreal, brother to these Provencals--great captain of great robbers?"

"Ay, and I have seen him, my Lord."

"Well, then, he is in Rome. Some daring thought--some well-supported and
deep-schemed villany, could alone make that bandit venture openly into
an Italian city, whose territories he ravaged by fire and sword a
few months back. But his brothers have lent me money--assisted my
return;--for their own ends, it is true: but the seeming obligation
gives them real power. These Northern swordsmen would cut my throat if
the Great Captain bade them. He counts on my supposed weakness. I know
him of old. I suspect--nay I read, his projects; but I cannot prove
them. Without proof, I cannot desert Palestrina in order to accuse
and seize him. Thou art shrewd, thoughtful, acute;--couldst thou go to
Rome?--watch day and night his movements--see if he receive messengers
from Albornoz or the Barons--if he confer with Pandulfo di Guido;--watch
his lodgment, I say, night and day. He affects no concealment; your task
will be less difficult than it seems. Apprise the Signora of all you
learn. Give me your news daily. Will you undertake this mission?"

"I will, my Lord."

"To horse, then, quick!--and mind--save the wife of my bosom, I have no
confidant in Rome."



Chapter 10.II. Montreal at Rome.--His Reception of Angelo Villani.

The danger that threatened Rienzi by the arrival of Montreal was
indeed formidable. The Knight of St. John, having marched his army into
Lombardy, had placed it at the disposal of the Venetian State in its war
with the Archbishop of Milan. For this service he received an immense
sum; while he provided winter quarters for his troop, for whom he
proposed ample work in the ensuing spring. Leaving Palestrina secretly
and in disguise, with but a slender train, which met him at Tivoli,
Montreal repaired to Rome. His ostensible object was, partly to
congratulate the Senator on his return, partly to receive the monies
lent to Rienzi by his brother.

His secret object we have partly seen; but not contented with the
support of the Barons, he trusted, by the corrupting means of his
enormous wealth, to form a third party in support of his own ulterior
designs. Wealth, indeed, in that age and in that land, was scarcely less
the purchaser of diadems than it had been in the later days of the
Roman Empire. And in many a city torn by hereditary feuds, the hatred of
faction rose to that extent, that a foreign tyrant, willing and able to
expel one party, might obtain at least the temporary submission of
the other. His after-success was greatly in proportion to his power to
maintain his state by a force which was independent of the citizens,
and by a treasury which did not require the odious recruit of taxes. But
more avaricious than ambitious, more cruel than firm, it was by griping
exaction, or unnecessary bloodshed, that such usurpers usually fell.

Montreal, who had scanned the frequent revolutions of the time with a
calm and investigating eye, trusted that he should be enabled to avoid
both these errors: and, as the reader has already seen, he had formed
the profound and sagacious project of consolidating his usurpation by an
utterly new race of nobles, who, serving him by the feudal tenure of the
North, and ever ready to protect him, because in so doing they protected
their own interests, should assist to erect, not the rotten and
unsupported fabric of a single tyranny, but the strong fortress of a
new, hardy, and compact Aristocratic State. Thus had the great dynasties
of the North been founded; in which a King, though seemingly curbed
by the Barons, was in reality supported by a common interest, whether
against a subdued population or a foreign invasion.

Such were the vast schemes--extending into yet wider fields of glory and
conquest, bounded only by the Alps--with which the Captain of the Grand
Company beheld the columns and arches of the Seven-hilled City.

No fear disturbed the long current of his thoughts. His brothers were
the leaders of Rienzi's hireling army--that army were his creatures.
Over Rienzi himself he assumed the right of a creditor. Thus against
one party he deemed himself secure. For the friends of the Pope, he had
supported himself with private, though cautious, letters from Albornoz,
who desired only to make use of him for the return of the Roman
Barons; and with the heads of the latter we have already witnessed his
negotiations. Thus was he fitted, as he thought, to examine, to tamper
with all parties, and to select from each the materials necessary for
his own objects.

The open appearance of Montreal excited in Rome no inconsiderable
sensation. The friends of the Barons gave out that Rienzi was in league
with the Grand Company; and that he was to sell the imperial city to
the plunder and pillage of Barbarian robbers. The effrontery with which
Montreal (against whom, more than once, the Pontiff had thundered his
bulls) appeared in the Metropolitan City of the Church, was made yet
more insolent by the recollection of that stern justice which had led
the Tribune to declare open war against all the robbers of Italy: and
this audacity was linked with the obvious reflection, that the brothers
of the bold Provencal were the instruments of Rienzi's return. So
quickly spread suspicion through the city, that Montreal's presence
alone would in a few weeks have sufficed to ruin the Senator. Meanwhile,
the natural boldness of Montreal silenced every whisper of prudence;
and, blinded by the dazzle of his hopes, the Knight of St. John, as
if to give double importance to his coming, took up his residence in a
sumptuous palace, and his retinue rivalled, in the splendour of garb and
pomp, the display of Rienzi himself in his earlier and more brilliant
power.

Amidst the growing excitement, Angelo Villani arrived at Rome.
The character of this young man had been formed by his peculiar
circumstances. He possessed qualities which often mark the Illegitimate
as with a common stamp. He was insolent--like most of those who hold a
doubtful rank; and while ashamed of his bastardy, was arrogant of the
supposed nobility of his unknown parentage. The universal ferment and
agitation of Italy at that day rendered ambition the most common of all
the passions, and thus ambition, in all its many shades and varieties,
forces itself into our delineations of character in this history. Though
not for Angelo Villani were the dreams of the more lofty and generous
order of that sublime infirmity, he was strongly incited by the desire
and resolve to rise. He had warm affections and grateful impulses; and
his fidelity to his patron had been carried to a virtue: but from his
irregulated and desultory education, and the reckless profligacy of
those with whom, in ante-chambers and guard-rooms, much of his youth had
been passed, he had neither high principles nor an enlightened honour.
Like most Italians, cunning and shrewd, he scrupled not at any deceit
that served a purpose or a friend. His strong attachment to Rienzi had
been unconsciously increased by the gratification of pride and vanity,
flattered by the favour of so celebrated a man. Both self-interest and
attachment urged him to every effort to promote the views and safety of
one at once his benefactor and patron; and on undertaking his present
mission, his only thought was to fulfil it with the most complete
success. Far more brave and daring than was common with the Italians,
something of the hardihood of an Ultra-Montane race gave nerve and
vigour to his craft; and from what his art suggested, his courage never
shrunk.

When Rienzi had first detailed to him the objects of his present task,
he instantly called to mind his adventure with the tall soldier in the
crowd at Avignon. "If ever thou wantest a friend, seek him in Walter
de Montreal," were words that had often rung in his ear, and they now
recurred to him with prophetic distinctness. He had no doubt that it
was Montreal himself whom he had seen. Why the Great Captain should
have taken this interest in him, Angelo little cared to conjecture. Most
probably it was but a crafty pretence--one of the common means by which
the Chief of the Grand Company attracted to himself the youths of Italy,
as well as the warriors of the North. He only thought now how he could
turn the Knight's promise to account. What more easy than to present
himself to Montreal--remind him of the words--enter his service--and
thus effectually watch his conduct? The office of spy was not that which
would have pleased every mind, but it shocked not the fastidiousness of
Angelo Villani; and the fearful hatred with which his patron had often
spoken of the avaricious and barbarian robber--the scourge of his native
land,--had infected the young man, who had much of the arrogant and mock
patriotism of the Romans, with a similar sentiment. More vindictive
even than grateful, he bore, too, a secret grudge against Montreal's
brothers, whose rough address had often wounded his pride; and, above
all, his early recollections of the fear and execration in which Ursula
seemed ever to hold the terrible Fra Moreale, impressed him with a vague
belief of some ancient wrong to himself or his race, perpetrated by the
Provencal, which he was not ill-pleased to have the occasion to avenge.
In truth, the words of Ursula, mystic and dark as they were in
their denunciation, had left upon Villani's boyish impressions an
unaccountable feeling of antipathy and hatred to the man it was now his
object to betray. For the rest, every device seemed to him decorous
and justifiable, so that it saved his master, served his country, and
advanced himself.

Montreal was alone in his chamber when it was announced to him that
a young Italian craved an audience. Professionally open to access, he
forthwith gave admission to the applicant.

The Knight of St. John instantly recognised the page he had encountered
at Avignon; and when Angelo Villani said, with easy boldness, "I have
come to remind Sir Walter de Montreal of a promise--"

The Knight interrupted him with cordial frankness--"Thou needest not--I
remember it. Dost thou now require my friendship?"

"I do noble Signor!" answered Angelo; "I know not where else to seek a
patron."

"Canst thou read and write? I fear me not."

"I have been taught those arts," replied Villani.

"It is well. Is thy birth gentle?"

"It is."

"Better still;--thy name?"

"Angelo Villani."

"I take thy blue eyes and low broad brow," said Montreal, with a slight
sigh, "in pledge of thy truth. Henceforth, Angelo Villani, thou art
in the list of my secretaries. Another time thou shalt tell me more
of thyself. Thy service dates from this day. For the rest, no man ever
wanted wealth who served Walter de Montreal; nor advancement, if
he served him faithfully. My closet, through yonder door, is thy
waiting-room. Ask for, and send hither, Lusignan of Lyons; he is my
chief scribe, and will see to thy comforts, and instruct thee in thy
business."

Angelo withdrew--Montreal's eye followed him.

"A strange likeness!" said he, musingly and sadly; "my heart leaps to
that boy!"



Chapter 10.III. Montreal's Banquet.

Some few days after the date of the last chapter, Rienzi received
news from Rome, which seemed to produce in him a joyous and elated
excitement. His troops still lay before Palestrina, and still the
banners of the Barons waved over its unconquered walls. In truth, the
Italians employed half their time in brawls amongst themselves; the
Velletritrani had feuds with the people of Tivoli, and the Romans were
still afraid of conquering the Barons;--"The hornet," said they, "stings
worse after he is dead; and neither an Orsini, a Savelli, nor a Colonna,
was ever known to forgive."