PREFACE.
to The First Edition of Rienzi.
I began this tale two years ago at Rome.

On removing to Naples, I threw it aside for "The Last Days of Pompeii," which required more than "Rienzi" the advantage of residence within reach of the scenes described.

The fate of the Roman Tribune continued, however, to haunt and impress me, and, some time after "Pompeii" was published, I renewed my earlier undertaking.

I regarded the completion of these volumes, indeed, as a kind of duty;--for having had occasion to read the original authorities from which modern historians have drawn their accounts of the life of Rienzi, I was led to believe that a very remarkable man had been superficially judged, and a very important period crudely examined.
(See Appendix, Nos.

I and II.) And this belief was sufficiently strong to induce me at first to meditate a more serious work upon the life and times of Rienzi.