Dedication of Rienzi.

To Alessandro Manzoni, as to the Genius of the Place,

Are Dedicated These Fruits, gathered on The Soil of Italian Fiction.

London, Dec. 1, 1835.

Dedication,

Prefixed to the First Collected Edition of the Author’s Works in 1840.

My Dear Mother,

In inscribing with your beloved and honoured name this Collection of my Works, I could wish that the fruits of my manhood were worthier of the tender and anxious pains bestowed upon my education in youth.

Left yet young, and with no ordinary accomplishments and gifts, the sole guardian of your sons, to them you devoted the best years of your useful and spotless life; and any success it be their fate to attain in the paths they have severally chosen, would have its principal sweetness in the thought that such success was the reward of one whose hand aided every struggle, and whose heart sympathized in every care.

From your graceful and accomplished taste, I early learned that affection for literature which has exercised so large an influence over the pursuits of my life; and you who were my first guide, were my earliest critic. Do you remember the summer days, which seemed to me so short, when you repeated to me those old ballads with which Percy revived the decaying spirit of our national muse, or the smooth couplets of Pope, or those gentle and polished verses with the composition of which you had beguiled your own earlier leisure? It was those easy lessons, far more than the harsher rudiments learned subsequently in schools, that taught me to admire and to imitate; and in them I recognise the germ of the flowers, however perishable they be, that I now bind up and lay upon a shrine hallowed by a thousand memories of unspeakable affection. Happy, while I borrowed from your taste, could I have found it not more difficult to imitate your virtues—your spirit of active and extended benevolence, your cheerful piety, your considerate justice, your kindly charity—and all the qualities that brighten a nature more free from the thought of self, than any it has been my lot to meet with. Never more than at this moment did I wish that my writings were possessed of a merit which might outlive my time, so that at least these lines might remain a record of the excellence of the Mother, and the gratitude of the Son.

E.L.B. London: January 6, 1840.

CONTENTS

Preface

RIENZI, The Last of the Tribunes.

BOOK I. THE TIME, THE PLACE, AND THE MEN.
Chapter 1.I The Brothers.
Chapter 1.II An Historical Survey—not to Be Passed Over, Except by
Chapter 1.III The Brawl.
Chapter 1.IV An Adventure.
Chapter 1.V The Description of a Conspirator, and the Dawn of the
Chapter 1.VI Irene in the Palace of Adrian di Castello.
Chapter 1.VII Upon Love and Lovers.
Chapter 1.VIII The Enthusiastic Man Judged by the Discreet Man.
Chapter 1.IX “When the People Saw this Picture, Every One Marvelled.”
Chapter 1.X A Rough Spirit Raised, Which May Hereafter Rend the Wizard.
Chapter 1.XI Nina di Raselli.
Chapter 1.XII The Strange Adventures that Befel Walter de Montreal.
BOOK II
THE REVOLUTION
Chapter 2.I The Knight of Provence, and his Proposal.
Chapter 2.II The Interview, and the Doubt.
Chapter 2.III The Situation of a Popular Patrician in Times of Popular
Chapter 2.IV The Ambitious Citizen, and the Ambitious Soldier.
Chapter 2.V The Procession of the Barons.—The Beginning of the End.
Chapter 2.VI The Conspirator Becomes the Magistrate.
Chapter 2.VII Looking after the Halter when the Mare is Stolen.
Chapter 2.VIII The Attack—the Retreat—the Election—and the Adhesion.
BOOK III
THE FREEDOM WITHOUT LAW.
Chapter 3.I The Return of Walter de Montreal to his Fortress.
Chapter 3.II The Life of Love and War—the Messenger of Peace—the
Chapter 3.III The Conversation between the Roman and the
BOOK IV
THE TRIUMPH AND THE POMP.
Chapter 4.I The Boy Angelo—the Dream of Nina Fulfilled.
Chapter 4.II The Blessing of A Councillor Whose Interests and Heart Are
Chapter 4.III The Actor Unmasked.
Chapter 4.IV The Enemy’s Camp.
Chapter 4.V The Night and its Incidents.
Chapter 4.VI The Celebrated Citation.
Chapter 4.VII The Festival.
BOOK V
THE CRISIS.
Chapter 5.I The Judgment of the Tribune.
Chapter 5.II The Flight.
Chapter 5.III The Battle.
Chapter 5.IV The Hollowness of the Base.
Chapter 5.V The Rottenness of the Edifice.
Chapter 5.VI The Fall of the Temple.
Chapter 5.VII The Successors of an Unsuccessful Revolution—Who is to
BOOK VI
THE PLAGUE.
Chapter 6.1 The Retreat of the Lover.
Chapter 6.II The Seeker.
Chapter 6.III The Flowers Amidst the Tombs.
Chapter 6.IV We Obtain What We Seek, and Know it Not.
Chapter 6.V The Error.
BOOK VII
THE PRISON.
Chapter 7.I Avignon.—The Two Pages.—The Stranger Beauty.
Chapter 7.II The Character of a Warrior Priest—an Interview—the
Chapter 7.III Holy Men.—Sagacious Deliberations.—Just Resolves.—And
Chapter 7.IV The Lady and the Page.
Chapter 7.V The Inmate of the Tower.
Chapter 7.VI The Scent Does Not Lie.—The Priest and the Soldier.
Chapter 7.VII Vaucluse and its Genius Loci.—Old Acquaintance Renewed.
Chapter 7.VIII The Crowd.—The Trial.—The Verdict.—The Soldier and
Chapter 7.IX Albornoz and Nina.
BOOK VIII
THE GRAND COMPANY.
Chapter 8.I The Encampment.
Chapter 8.II Adrian Once More the Guest of Montreal.
Chapter 8.III Faithful and Ill-fated Love.—The Aspirations Survive the
BOOK IX
THE RETURN.
Chapter 9.I The Triumphal Entrance.
Chapter 9.II The Masquerade.
Chapter 9.III Adrian’s Adventures at Palestrina.
Chapter 9.IV The Position of the Senator.—The Work of Years.—The
Chapter 9.V The Biter Bit.
Chapter 9.VI The Events Gather to the End.
BOOK X
THE LION Of BASALT.
Chapter 10.I The Conjunction of Hostile Planets in the House of Death.
Chapter 10.II Montreal at Rome.—His Reception of Angelo Villani.
Chapter 10.III Montreal’s Banquet.
Chapter 10.IV The Sentence of Walter de Montreal.
Chapter 10.V The Discovery.
Chapter 10.VI The Suspense.
Chapter 10.VII The Tax.
Chapter 10.VIII The Threshold of the Event.
Chapter The Last The Close of the Chase.
Appendix I
Some Remarks on the Life and Character of Rienzi.
Appendix II A Word Upon the Work by Pere du Cerceau and Pere Brumoy,