CHAPTER 2.VIII.The Attack--the Retreat--the Election--and the Adhesion.
Arriving at Rome, the company of the Colonna found the gates barred, and the walls manned.

Stephen bade advance his trumpeters, with one of his captains, imperiously to demand admittance.
"We have orders," replied the chief of the town-guard, "to admit none who bear arms, flags, or trumpets.

Let the Lords Colonna dismiss their train, and they are welcome." "Whose are these insolent mandates ?" asked the captain.
"Those of the Lord Bishop of Orvietto and Cola di Rienzi, joint protectors of the Buono Stato." (Good Estate.) The captain of the Colonna returned to his chief with these tidings.

The rage of Stephen was indescribable.

"Go back," he cried, as soon as he could summon voice, "and say, that, if the gates are not forthwith opened to me and mine, the blood of the plebeians be on their own head.
As for Raimond, Vicars of the Pope have high spiritual authority, none temporal.