"Ay, you see what the people were! and we should never have known this
but for him."

"Peace, fellows;" said the officer to those of the crowd, from whom came
these whispered sentences.

Rienzi continued.--"Yes, it is the people who intrusted this power--to
the people, therefore, it belongs! Did the haughty Emperor arrogate the
crown? Could he assume the authority of himself? Was it born with
him? Did he derive it, my Lord Barons, from the possession of towered
castles--of lofty lineage? No! all-powerful as he was, he had no right
to one atom of that power, save from the voice and trust of the Roman
people. Such, O my countrymen! such was even that day, when Liberty
was but the shadow of her former self,--such was the acknowledged
prerogative of your fathers! All power was the gift of the people. What
have ye to give now? Who, who, I say,--what single person, what petty
chief, asks you for the authority he assumes? His senate is his
sword; his chart of license is written, not with ink, but blood. The
people!--there is no people! Oh! would to God that we might disentomb
the spirit of the Past as easily as her records!"

"If I were your kinsman," whispered Montreal to Adrian, "I would give
this man short breathing-time between his peroration and confession."

"What is your Emperor?" continued Rienzi; "a stranger! What the great
head of your Church?--an exile! Ye are without your lawful chiefs; and
why? Because ye are not without your law-defying tyrants! The licence
of your nobles, their discords, their dissensions, have driven our Holy
Father from the heritage of St. Peter;--they have bathed your streets in