he turned abruptly round to confront the Knight, and placed his hand
involuntarily on his sword, but presently relinquished the grasp.

"Ha!" said the Roman, slowly, "if this be true, fall Rome! There is
treason even among the free!"

"No treason, brave Sir!" answered Montreal; "I possess thy secret--but
none have betrayed it to me."

"And is it as friend or foe that thou hast learned it?"

"That as it may be," returned Montreal, carelessly. "Enough, at present,
that I could send thee to the gibbet, if I said but the word,--to show
my power to be thy foe; enough, that I have not done it, to prove my
disposition to be thy friend."

"Thou mistakest, stranger! that man does not live who could shed my
blood in the streets of Rome! The gibbet! Little dost thou know of the
power which surrounds Rienzi."

These words were said with some scorn and bitterness; but, after a
moment's pause, Rienzi resumed, more calmly:--

"By the cross on thy mantle, thou belongest to one of the proudest
orders of knighthood: thou art a foreigner, and a cavalier. What
generous sympathies can convert thee into a friend of the Roman people?"

"Cola di Rienzi," returned Montreal, "the sympathies that unite us are
those which unite all men who, by their own efforts, rise above the
herd. True, I was born noble--but powerless and poor: at my beck now