The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-03-14

,rreat man had been SupffiItidiIH
Judged and a very important pIIiou
almost h~ysteric. hatred OF historical
who protested the Chris
lion religion. as well aS his innate IN
ability to comprehend such a man a.
the last OF the tribuneS or his aims
and aspirations. caused him TO SUR
over with gibes and Distractions a man
whose elements of greatness were
overwhelmed in the impOssibility OF
r%estorino a ~genera race and a
dead civilization single handed. ,Illat
Rienzi's own fault fastened his down.
fall is undOubted, as it is also patent
that power intoxicated him ana
caused him in his nlaturer years to
commit yaoaricS which he was first
building up his power. RieHZi ana
his story arc worthy OF a greater
mind and a more potent hand than
RulWPf-LyttOn. But BulWer-LyttOn
has given US the best We have CON
corning him and it-and so with this
must we at present remain coh'cliteH.
1t was a summer evening in the
early part of the fourteenth century.
Two youths were walking alonS tne
banks of the Tiber not far from that
part of its winding course when
washes the foot of Mount AVentlne.
One was q tall and stalwart young
liz Il buI HUT ST.
but whose features and manners dls-
played something in them which
seemed to make him an equal OF men
much his senior, and whose y had
the glance of one born to
The other was a mere boy with noun
ing remarkable about him.. unless II
night be the expression of gentle
sweetness. almost feminine, which his
c~Ountenance wore.
They were Cola di RienZi and his
young brother. They were sons Of an
inn keeper and of the rank of the
plebeians, though trough their moth
er. they might lay claim to royal blood,
their maternal grandfather having
been q natural son Of the Teutonic
Emperor Henry VII. ola, in spite
Of his being a plebeian, had already
acquired such a reputation for Wit ana
scholarship that he had been AIKEN
under the patronage OF the aged Chief
of the great house of Colonna, and
was not ~infrequently invited to the
table of that great man, who, how
ever, unable to perceive the really
great qualities which were ripening
in the young man, regarding him more
for his merry stories at table than
anything else and looked upon him
rather as a scholarly buHoon
On the evening on which our story
opens Cola, after q while. said to his
brother: Now our ak has begui1ed
me, Father Umberto has promised me
a rare manuscript which. the good
friar cenfesses. has puzzled the whole
convent. SEEK his cell. Tarry you
here a while. I shall soon return"
While Cola was zone the younger
boy busted himself with gathering a
garland of flowers, an of
which grew wild over h broken
ruins Of empire which strewed the
spot now desolate and once so alive
rUi*b the glory and the nnmn of
Rome.
Scarcely had he completed his task
when down the road in one direction
came charging a troop of mounted
men cryi..g "A Colonna! A Colonial
and from the opposite direction an
other band came charging also, to the
battle cry of "Orsini! Orsini, be-
ware the hug Of the bear!" Caught
between the ~contending factions. as
they met in deadly conflict. hacking
and Staying and shouting their war
cries, young RienZi fell dead pierced
by the lance Of one of the Colonnas,
who had mistaken him for a page of
the Orsini.
In those days Rome was at her low
est stage of degradation. The former
mistress of the world. shrunk in
dimensions to a comparatively small
city. sat in the midst OF vast stretches
of ruins which had once been called
by her name, her marts deserted, the
marbles OF her imperial palaces and
stored temples quarried to make
novels for an abject and degraded
race. the football OF a few naughty
noble families whose great fortress
palaces shot their towers in grim
menace above the desolation and de-
cay. Chiefest Of these noble families
were the Colonna and the Orsini; and
their perpetual feuds. fought out with
their r~etainers and their hired north
ern m~ercenaries. kept the city in spas
modic war and tumult while their
oppression kept the lives of the people
in constant jeopardy and their
rapacity steeDed the plebeians in the
epes poverty. Renzi being a little
above the masses in birth and also
being of some substance, migi1e have
allied himself with one Of these pow
effui barons and become q follower
in his train.
But his studies had filed his mind
with the idea of s.fhe S3ory that was