“True; but I have also heard that he likes bookmen and scholars—­is wise and temperate, and much is yet hoped from him in Italy!  Before the Emperor, I say, came Rienzi.  ‘Know, great Prince,’ said he, ’that I am that Rienzi to whom God gave to govern Rome, in peace, with justice, and to freedom.  I curbed the nobles, I purged corruption, I amended law.  The powerful persecuted me—­pride and envy have chased me from my dominions.  Great as you are, fallen as I am, I too have wielded the sceptre and might have worn a crown.  Know, too, that I am illegitimately of your lineage; my father the son of Henry VII.; (Uncle to the Emperor Charles.) the blood of the Teuton rolls in my veins; mean as were my earlier fortunes and humble my earlier name!  From you, O King, I seek protection, and I demand justice.” (See, for this speech, “the Anonymous Biographer,” lib. ii. cap. 12.)

“A bold speech, and one from equal to equal,” said Giacomo; “surely you swell us out the words.”

“Not a whit; they were written down by the Emperor’s scribe, and every Roman who has once heard knows them by heart:  once every Roman was the equal to a king, and Rienzi maintained our dignity in asserting his own.”

Giacomo, who discreetly avoided quarrels, knew the weak side of his friend; and though in his heart he thought the Romans as good-for-nothing a set of turbulent dastards as all Italy might furnish, he merely picked a straw from his mantle, and said, in rather an impatient tone, “Humph! proceed! did the Emperor dismiss him?”

“Not so:  Charles was struck with his bearing and his spirit, received him graciously, and entertained him hospitably.  He remained some time at Prague, and astonished all the learned with his knowledge and eloquence.” (His Italian contemporary delights in representing this remarkable man as another Crichton.  “Disputava,” he says of him when at Prague, “disputava con Mastri di teologia; molto diceva, parlava cose meravigliose...abbair fea ogni persona.”—­“He disputed with Masters of theology—­he spoke much, he discoursed things wonderful—­he astonished every one.”)

“But if so honoured at Prague, how comes he a prisoner at Avignon?”

“Giacomo,” said Angelo, thoughtfully, “there are some men whom we, of another mind and mould, can rarely comprehend, and never fathom.  And of such men I have observed that a supreme confidence in their own fortunes or their own souls, is the most common feature.  Thus impressed, and thus buoyed, they rush into danger with a seeming madness, and from danger soar to greatness, or sink to death.  So with Rienzi; dissatisfied with empty courtesies and weary of playing the pedant, since once he had played the prince;—­some say of his own accord, (though others relate that he was surrendered to the Pope’s legate by Charles,) he left the Emperor’s court, and without arms, without money, betook himself at once to Avignon!”

“Madness indeed!”