Now it seems to me the interest of all the powerful families--your own, at Rome, as that of the Visconti, at Milan--to expedite this epoch, and to check, while you yet may with ease, that rebellious contagion amongst the people which is now rapidly spreading, and which ends in the fever of licence to them, but in the corruption of death to you.

In these free States, the nobles are the first to suffer: first your privileges, then your property, are swept away.

Nay, in Florence, as ye well know, my Lords, no noble is even capable of holding the meanest office in the State!" "Villains!" said Colonna, "they violate the first law of nature!" "At this moment," resumed Montreal, who, engrossed with his subject, little heeded the interruptions he received from the holy indignation of the Baron: "at this moment, there are many--the wisest, perhaps, in the free States--who desire to renew the old Lombard leagues, in defence of their common freedom everywhere, and against whosoever shall aspire to be prince.

Fortunately, the deadly jealousies between these merchant States--the base plebeian jealousies--more of trade than of glory--interpose at present an irresistible obstacle to this design; and Florence, the most stirring and the most esteemed of all, is happily so reduced by reverses of commerce as to be utterly unable to follow out so great an undertaking.

Now, then, is the time for us, my Lords; while these obstacles are so great for our foes, now is the time for us to form and cement a counter-league between all the princes of Italy.