"Enter," he said, lifting his face, to which the wonted colour slowly
returned.

An officer, half-opening the door, announced that the person he had sent
for waited his leisure.

"I come!--Core of my heart," (he whispered to Nina,) "we will sup alone
tonight, and will converse more on these matters:" so saying, with
somewhat less than his usual loftiness of mien, he left the room,
and sought his cabinet, which lay at the other side of the reception
chamber. Here he found Cecco del Vecchio.

"How, my bold fellow," said the Tribune, assuming with wonderful ease
that air of friendly equality which he always adopted with those of the
lower class, and which made a striking contrast with the majesty, no
less natural, which marked his manner to the great. "How now, my Cecco!
Thou bearest thyself bravely, I see, during these sickly heats; we
labourers--for both of us labour, Cecco--are too busy to fall ill as the
idle do, in the summer, or the autumn, of Roman skies. I sent for thee,
Cecco, because I would know how thy fellow-craftsmen are like to take
the Orsini's execution."

"Oh! Tribune," replied the artificer, who, now familiarized with Rienzi,
had lost much of his earlier awe of him, and who regarded the Tribune's
power as partly his own creation; "they are already out of their honest
wits, at your courage in punishing the great men as you would the
small."

"So;--I am repaid! But hark you, Cecco, it will bring, perhaps, hot work
upon us. Every Baron will dread lest it be his turn next, and dread will