'Pardon, Lord Bishop,' said he, as he passed me; 'but this world, thou knowest, must necessarily take precedence of the other.'" "Dared he so high ?" said Rienzi, shading his face with his hand, as a very peculiar smile--scarcely itself joyous, though it made others gay, and which completely changed the character of his face, naturally grave even to sternness--played round his lips.

"Then it is time for thee, holy father, as for us, to--" "To what ?" interrupted the Bishop, quickly.

"Can we effect aught! Dismiss thy enthusiastic dreamings--descend to the real earth--look soberly round us.

Against men so powerful, what can we do ?" "My Lord," answered Rienzi, gravely, "it is the misfortune of signors of your rank never to know the people, or the accurate signs of the time.
As those who pass over the heights of mountains see the clouds sweep below, veiling the plains and valleys from their gaze, while they, only a little above the level, survey the movements and the homes of men; even so from your lofty eminence ye behold but the indistinct and sullen vapours--while from my humbler station I see the preparations of the shepherds, to shelter themselves and herds from the storm which those clouds betoken.

Despair not, my Lord; endurance goes but to a certain limit--to that limit it is already stretched; Rome waits but the occasion (it will soon come, but not suddenly) to rise simultaneously against her oppressors." The great secret of eloquence is to be in earnest--the great secret of Rienzi's eloquence was in the mightiness of his enthusiasm.