"A wise knave!--I beg pardon, a sagacious prince!--Well, then, the
Tribune lords it mightily, I suppose, over the great Roman names?"

"Pardon me--he enforces impartial justice from peasant or patrician; but
he preserves to the nobles all their just privileges and legal rank."

"Ha!--and the vain puppets, so they keep the semblance, scarce miss the
substance--I understand. But this shows genius--the Tribune is unwed, I
think. Does he look among the Colonna for a wife?"

"Sir Knight, the Tribune is already married; within three days after his
ascension to power, he won and bore home the daughter of the Baron di
Raselli."

"Raselli! no great name; he might have done better."

"But it is said," resumed the youth, smiling, "that the Tribune will
shortly be allied to the Colonna, through his fair sister the Signora
Irene. The Baron di Castello woos her."

"What, Adrian Colonna! Enough! you have convinced me that a man who
contents the people and awes or conciliates the nobles is born for
empire. My answer to this letter I will send myself. For your news, Sir
Messenger, accept this jewel," and the knight took from his finger a gem
of some price. "Nay, shrink not, it was as freely given to me as it is
now to thee."

The youth, who had been agreeably surprised, and impressed, by the
manner of the renowned freebooter, and who was not a little astonished
himself with the ease and familiarity with which he had been relating