Rienzi, Last of the Roman Tribunes by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
page 152 of 660 (23%)
page 152 of 660 (23%)
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witticisms or nicknames--the brief words of praise or censure, that
imply so much--which passed to and fro among that lively crowd, were treasured carefully in his recollection. "Make way, there!--way for my Lord Martino Orsini--Baron di Porto!" "Peace, minion!--draw back! way for the Signor Adrian Colonna, Baron di Castello, and Knight of the Empire." And at those two rival shouts, you saw waving on high the golden bear of the Orsini, with the motto--"Beware my embrace!" and the solitary column on an azure ground, of the Colonna, with Adrian's especial device--"Sad, but strong." The train of Martino Orsini was much more numerous than that of Adrian, which last consisted but of ten servitors. But Adrian's men attracted far greater admiration amongst the crowd, and pleased more the experienced eye of the warlike Knight of St. John. Their arms were polished like mirrors; their height was to an inch the same; their march was regular and sedate; their mien erect; they looked neither to the right nor left; they betrayed that ineffable discipline--that harmony of order--which Adrian had learned to impart to his men during his own apprenticeship of arms. But the disorderly train of the Lord of Porto was composed of men of all heights. Their arms were ill-polished and ill-fashioned, and they pressed confusedly on each other; they laughed and spoke aloud; and in their mien and bearing expressed all the insolence of men who despised alike the master they served and the people they awed. The two bands coming unexpectedly on each other through this narrow defile, the jealousy of the two houses presently declared itself. Each pressed forward for the precedence; and, as the quiet regularity of Adrian's train, and even its compact paucity of numbers, enabled it to pass before the servitors of his rival, the |
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