Oh, my Lord, that you--the brave, the generous, the enlightened--you, almost alone amidst your order, in the knowledge that we had a country--oh, would that you who can sympathise with our sufferings, would strike with us for their redress!" "Thou wilt war against Stephen Colonna, my kinsman; and though I have seen him but little, nor, truth to say, esteem him much, yet he is the boast of our house,--how can I join thee ?" "His life will be safe, his possessions safe, his rank safe.

What do we war against?
His power to do wrong to others." "Should he discover that thou hast force beyond words, he would be less merciful to thee." "And has he not discovered that?
Do not the shouts of the people tell him that I am a man whom he should fear?
Does he--the cautious, the wily, the profound--does he build fortresses, and erect towers, and not see from his battlements the mighty fabric that I, too, have erected ?" "You! where, Rienzi ?" "In the hearts of Rome! Does he not see ?" continued Rienzi.

"No, no; he--all, all his tribe, are blind.

Is it not so ?" "Of a certainty, my kinsman has no belief in your power, else he would have crushed you long ere this.

Nay, it was but three days ago that he said, gravely, he would rather you addressed the populace than the best priest in Christendom; for that other orators inflamed the crowd, and no man so stilled and dispersed them as you did." "And I called him profound! Does not Heaven hush the air most when most it prepares the storm?
Ay, my Lord, I understand.