[Rienzi by Edward Bulwer Lytton]@TWC D-Link bookRienzi CHAPTER 1 5/8
He pushed on rudely--half-smiling in contempt, half-frowning in revenge, as he looked from side to side; and his long, matted, light hair, tawny-coloured moustache, and brawny front, contrasted strongly with the dark eyes, raven locks, and slender frames of the Italians. "May Lucifer double damn those German cut-throats!" muttered, between his grinded teeth, one of the citizens. "Amen!" answered, heartily, another. "Hush!" said a third, timorously looking round; "if one of them hear thee, thou art a lost man." "Oh, Rome! Rome! to what art thou fallen!" said bitterly one citizen, clothed in black, and of a higher seeming than the rest; "when thou shudderest in thy streets at the tread of a hired barbarian!" "Hark to one of our learned men, and rich citizens!" said the butcher, reverently. "'Tis a friend of Rienzi's," quoth another of the group, lifting his cap. With downcast eyes, and a face in which grief, shame, and wrath, were visibly expressed, Pandulfo di Guido, a citizen of birth and repute, swept slowly through the crowd, and disappeared. Meanwhile, Adrian, having gained a street which, though in the neighbourhood of the crowd, was empty and desolate, turned to his fierce comrade.
"Rodolf!" said he, "mark!--no violence to the citizens.
Return to the crowd, collect the friends of our house, withdraw them from the scene; let not the Colonna be blamed for this day's violence; and assure our followers, in my name, that I swear, by the knighthood I received at the Emperor's hands, that by my sword shall Martino di Porto be punished for his outrage.
Fain would I, in person, allay the tumult, but my presence only seems to sanction it.
Go--thou hast weight with them all." "Ay, Signor, the weight of blows!" answered the grim soldier.
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