348

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

LXX.

Fall andflight ofthetribuneRienzi,

A. D. 1347,Dec. 16.

that fatal spot that he conferred on his son thehonour of knighthood; and the ceremony wasaccomplished by a slight blow from each of thehorsemen of the guard, and by a ridiculous andinhuman ablution from a pool of water, whichwas yet polluted with patrician blood.'

A short delay would have saved the Colonna;the delay of a single month, which elapsed be-tween the triumph and exile of Rienzi. In thepride of victory, he forfeited what yet remainedof his civil virtues, without acquiring the fameof military prowess. A free and vigorous oppo-sition was formed in the city; and when the tri-bune proposed in the public council' to imposea new tax, and to regulate the government ofPerugia , thirty-nine members voted against hismeasures; repelled the injurious charge oftreachery and corruption; and urged him toprove, by their forcible exclusion, that, if thepopulace adhered to his cause, it was alreadydisclaimed by the most respectable citizens.The pope and the sacred college had never beendazzled by his specious professions; they werejustly offended by the insolence of his conduct:a cardinal legate was sent to Italy , and aftersome fruitless treaty, and two personal inter-

* Petrarch wrote a stiff and pedantic letter of consolation (Fam.1. vii, epist 13, p. 682, 6S3). The friend was lost in the patriot.Nulla toto orbe principum familia carior; carior tamen respublica,carior Roma, carior Italia.

Je rends graces au Dion de n’etre pas Romain.

1 This council and opposition is obscurely mentioned by Pollistore,a contemporary writer, who has preserved some curious and originalfinds (Her. Italicarum tom. xxv, c 31, p. 798-804).