The unprecedented and almost miraculous rise of Rienzi from the rank of
the Pontiff's official to the Lord of Rome, would have been accompanied
with a yet greater miracle, if it had not somewhat dazzled and seduced
the object it elevated. When, as in well-ordered states and tranquil
times, men rise slowly, step by step, they accustom themselves to
their growing fortunes. But the leap of an hour from a citizen to a
prince--from the victim of oppression to the dispenser of justice--is
a transition so sudden as to render dizzy the most sober brain. And,
perhaps, in proportion to the imagination, the enthusiasm, the genius
of the man, will the suddenness be dangerous--excite too extravagant a
hope--and lead to too chimerical an ambition. The qualities that made
him rise, hurry him to his fall; and victory at the Marengo of his
fortunes, urges him to destruction at its Moscow.

In his greatness Rienzi did not so much acquire new qualities, as
develop in brighter light and deeper shadow those which he had always
exhibited. On the one hand he was just--resolute--the friend of
the oppressed--the terror of the oppressor. His wonderful intellect
illumined everything it touched. By rooting out abuse, and by searching
examination and wise arrangement, he had trebled the revenues of the
city without imposing a single new tax. Faithful to his idol of liberty,
he had not been betrayed by the wish of the people into despotic
authority; but had, as we have seen, formally revived, and established
with new powers, the Parliamentary Council of the city. However
extensive his own authority, he referred its exercise to the people; in
their name he alone declared himself to govern, and he never executed
any signal action without submitting to them its reasons or its
justification. No less faithful to his desire to restore prosperity as
well as freedom to Rome, he had seized the first dazzling epoch of his