with the character and designs of Montreal, than the hurry of events has
yet permitted him to become.

Walter de Montreal, generally known in the chronicles of Italy by the
designation of Fra Moreale, had passed into Italy--a bold adventurer,
worthy to become a successor of those roving Normans (from one of the
most eminent of whom, by the mother's side, he claimed descent) who
had formerly played so strange a part in the chivalric errantry of
Europe,--realizing the fables of Amadis and Palmerin--(each knight,
in himself a host), winning territories and oversetting thrones;
acknowledging no laws save those of knighthood; never confounding
themselves with the tribe amongst which they settled; incapable of
becoming citizens, and scarcely contented with aspiring to be kings.
At that time, Italy was the India of all those well-born and penniless
adventurers who, like Montreal, had inflamed their imagination by the
ballads and legends of the Roberts and the Godfreys of old; who had
trained themselves from youth to manage the barb, and bear, through the
heats of summer, the weight of arms; and who, passing into am effeminate
and distracted land, had only to exhibit bravery in order to command
wealth. It was considered no disgrace for some powerful chieftain to
collect together a band of these hardy aliens,--to subsist amidst the
mountains on booty and pillage,--to make war upon tyrant or republic, as
interest suggested, and to sell, at enormous stipends, the immunities
of peace. Sometimes they hired themselves to one state to protect it
against the other; and the next year beheld them in the field against
their former employers. These bands of Northern stipendiaries assumed,
therefore, a civil, as well as a military, importance; they were as
indispensable to the safety of one state as they were destructive to the
security of all. But five years before the present date, the Florentine
Republic had hired the services of a celebrated leader of these