spoken he would have changed them all, and the work been marred.'

The soldiers of the barons had already mixed themselves with the throng-more deadly weapons than stones aided the wrath of the multitude-darts and arrows darkened the air; and now a voice was heard shrieking, Way for the torches!' And red in the sunlight the torches tossed and waved, and danced to and fro above the heads of the crowd, as if the fiends were let loose amongst the mob! And what place in hell hath fiends like those a mad mob can furnish? Straw, and wood, and litter, were piled hastily round the great doors of the Capitol, and the smoke curled suddenly up, beating back the rush of the assailants.

one effort for his life! He divested himself of his glittering arms; his address, his dexterity, his craft, returned to him. His active mind ran over the chances of disguise-of escape:-he left the hallpassed through the humbler rooms, devoted to the servitors and menialsfound in one of them a coarse working garb-indued himself with it—placed upon his head some of the draperies and furniture of the palace, as if escaping with them; and said with his old fantastico riso' When all other friends desert me, I may well forsake myself!' With that he awaited his occasion.

Meanwhile the flames burnt fierce and fast; the outer door below was already consumed; from the apartment he had deserted the fire burst out in volleys of smoke the wood cracked-the lead melted-with a crash fell the several

He sat down;-and tears, springing from no weak and woman source, but tears from the loftiest fountain of emotion -tears that befit a warrior when his own troops desert him—a patriot when his countrymen rush to their own doom -a father when his children rebel against his love,-tears such as these forced themselves from his eyes and relieved, but they changed, his heart!

Enough, enough!' he said, presently rising and dashing the drops scornfully away; 'I have risked, dared, toiled enough for this dastard and degenerate race. I will yet baffle their malice-I renounce the thought of which they are so little worthy!-Let Rome perish!-I feel, at last, that I am nobler than my country!-she deserves not so high a sacrifice!'

With that feeling, Death lost all the nobleness of aspect it had before prented to him; and he resolved, in very

for his ungrateful foes, in very of their inhuman wrath, to make

to all the multitude-the proud Capitol of the Cæsars was already tottering to its fall! Now was the time!—he passed the flaming door-the smouldering threshold;- he passed the outer gate unscathed--he was in the middle of the crowd. Plenty of pillage within,' he said to the bystanders, in the Roman patois, his face concealed by his load—

Suso, suso a gliu traditore!' The mob rushed past him- he went on-he gained the last stair descending into the open streets-he was at the last gateliberty and life were before him. A soldier (one of his own) seized him. 'Pass not-whither goest thou?'

'Beware, lest the Senator escape disguised!' cried a voice behind. The concealing load was torn from his headRienzi stood revealed: 'I am the Senator!' he said in a loud voice. 'Who dare touch the Representative of the People?'

The multitude were round him in an instant. Not led, but rather hurried and whirled along, the Senator was borne to the Place of the Lion. With the intense * Fantastic smile or laugh.

+ Down, down with the traitor!'

glare of the bursting flames, the grey image reflected a lurid light, and glowed -(that grim and solemn monument!) as if itself of fire!

There arrived, the crowd gave way, terrified by the greatness of their victim. Silent he stood, and turned his face around; nor could the squalor of his garb, nor the terror of the hour, nor the proud grief of detection, abate the majesty of his mien, or reassure the courage of the thousands who gathered, gazing, around him. The whole Capitol wrapped in fire, lighted with ghastly pomp the immense multitude. Down the long vista of the streets extended the fiery light and the serried throng, till the crowd closed with the gleaming standards of the Colonna-the Orsini

the Savelli! Her true tyrants were marching into Rome! As the sound of their approaching horns and trumpets broke upon the burning air, the mob seemed to regain their courage. Rienzi prepared to speak; his first word was the signal of his own death.

'Die, tyrant!' cried a rioter, and he plunged his dagger in the Senator's breast.

'Die, executioner of the people!' muttered another; thus the trust is fulfilled!' and his was the second stroke; and Rienzi, without a word, without a groan, fell to the earth."

Such was the end of the Tribune of the Roman people; such the reward of the man who attempted to give freedom. to a degenerate race.

N the year 1348 Florence was attacked by the great plague. As to the exact nature of this plague

we are not able to speak with authority. It would seem, however, that several circumstances combined together. The harvest

of 1346 had been an utter failure, and it was not till the September of 1347 that the pinch of famine ceased. We can easily understand that this must have lowered the general strength of the population, and predisposed them to disease. Then the complete neglect of all sanitary precautions common to that time must have kept a crowded community ever in a fit condition to receive the seeds of disease. It was to a community so prepared that the plague came. It advanced from the East,

made the circuit of Italy, and afterwards of all Europe; but nowhere were its ravages more disastrous than in the fair city on the Arno. It raged from April to September; and it was observed that five months was the usual time of its duration in other cities. The deathrate in Florence was six hundred daily, and three-fifths of the population perished.

We abridge the following graphic account of the plague from an imaginative writer of our own time. It is only necessary to premise that it represents the search of a young Italian nobleman for the lady of his love, whom he believed to be in the plague-stricken city.

"It was a bright, oppressive, sultry morning, when a solitary horseman was seen winding that unequalled road, from whose height, amidst fig-trees, vines, and olives, the traveller beholds gradually break upon his gaze the enchanting valley of the Arno, and the spires and

ere he reached the gate, those of the animals that had been busiest rooting at the infectious heap, dropped down dead amongst their fellows."

Ho, ho,' said the masker, and his hollow voice sounded yet more hollow through his vizard,-'comest thou here to die, stranger? See, thy brave mantle of triple-pile and golden broidery will not save thee from the gavocciolo.† Ride on, ride on ;-to-day fit morsel for thy lady's kiss, to-morrow too foul for the rat and worm!'

Replying not to this hideous welcome, Adrian, for such was his name, pursued his way. The gates stood wide open: this was the most appalling sight of all, for, at first, the most jealous precaution had been taken against the ingress of strangers. Now all care, all foresight, all vigilance, were vain. And thrice nine warders had died at that single post, and the officers to appoint their successors were dead too! Law and Police, and the Tribunals of Health, and the Boards of Safety, Death had stopped them all! And the Plague killed art itself, social union, the harmony and mechanism of civilisation, as if they had been bone and flesh!

So, mute and solitary, went on the lover, in his quest of love, resolved to find and to save his betrothed, and guided (that faithful and loyal knight!) through the Wilderness of Horror by the blessed hope of that strange passion, noblest of all when noble, basest of all when base! He came into a broad and spacious square lined with palaces, the usual haunt of the best and most graceful nobility of Italy. The stranger was alone now, and the tramp of his gallant steed sounded ghastly and fearful in his own ears, when just as he turned the corner of one of the streets that led from it, he saw a woman steal forth with a child in her arms, while another, yet in

* The same spectacle greeted, and is recorded by, Воссассіо.

The tumour that made the fatal symptom.

infancy, clung to her robe. She held a large bunch of flowers to her nostrils (the fancied and favourite mode to prevent infection), and muttered to children, who were moaning with hunger, Yes, yes, you shall have food! Plenty of food now for the stirring forth. But oh, that stirring forth !'-and she peered about and round, lest any of the diseased might be near.

'My friend,' said he, can you direct me to the convent of

'Away, man, away!' shrieked she. 'Alas!' said Adrian, with a mournful smile, can you not see that I am not, as yet, one to spread contagion?'

But the woman, unheeding him, fled on; when, after a few paces, she was arrested by the child that clung to her.

'Mother, mother!' it cried, 'I am sick-I cannot stir.'

The woman halted, tore aside the child's robe, saw under the arm the fatal tumour, and, deserting her own flesh, fled with a shriek along the square. The shriek rang long in Adrian's ears, though not aware of the unnatural cause;-the mother feared not for her infant, but herself. The voice of nature was no more heeded in that charnel city than it is in the tomb itself! Adrian rode on at a brisker pace, and came at length before a stately church; its doors were wide open, and he saw within a company of monks (the church had no other worshippers, and they were masked) gathered round the altar, and chanting the Miserere Domine; the ministers of God, in a city hitherto boasting the devoutest population in Italy, without a flock!

The young cavalier paused before the door, and waited till the service was done, and the monks descended the steps into the street. He then demanded the way to the convent Santa Maria de Pazzi. He was told, and hastened there. He found the door wide open, but found the place occupied by a strange, disorderly ruffian herd, who at first