Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes (Volume 1-2) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1867. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... occurred to Adrian, as he passed along; and, despite his order, he felt as if civilization itself were enlisted against his house upon the side of Rienzi. Leaving his train in the court of the citadel, Adrian demanded admission to the presence of his cousin. He had left Stefanello a child on his departure from Rome, and there could therefore be but a slight and unfamiliar acquaintance betwixt them, despite their kindred. Peals of laughter came upon his ear, as he followed one of Stefanello's gentlemen through a winding passage that led to the principal chamber. The door was thrown open, and Adrian found himself in a rude hall, to which some appearance of hasty state and attempted comfort had been given. Costly arras imperfectly clothed the stone walls, and the rich seats and decorated tables, which the growing civilization of the northern cities of Italy had already introduced into the palaces of Italian nobles, strangely contrasted the rough pavement, spread with heaps of armor negligently piled around. At the farther end of the apartment Adrian shudderingly perceived, set in due and exact order, the implements of torture. Stefanello Colonna, with two other barons, indolently reclined on seats drawn around a table, in the recess of a deep casement, from which might be still seen the same glorious landscapes, bounded by the dim spires of Rome, which Hannibal and Pyrrhus had ascended that very citadel to survey Stefanello himself, irr the first bloom of youth, bore already on his beardless countenance those traces usually the work of the passions and vices of maturest manhood. His features were cast in the mould of the old Stephen's; in their clear, sharp, high-bred outline might be noticed that regular and graceful symmetry which blood, in men as in an...