THE DECLINE AND FALL
chap, flicted a thousand wounds; and the senator’slxx. fjyjy was abandoned tc the dogs, to the Jews ,and to the flames. Posterity will compare thevirtues and failings of this extraordinary man;but in a long period of anarchy and servitude,the name of Rienzi has often been celebrated asthe deliverer of his country, and the last of theRoman patriots.*
invltesand The ^ rst an d mos ^ generous wish of Petrarchupbraidi vvas the restoration of a free republic; but after
the cmpe- . . . .
ror diaries the exile and death of his plebeian hero, he turn-*. o . 1355, ed his eyes from the tribune, to the king, of theMa n y. ary " Romans. The capitol was yet stained with theblood of Rienzi, when Charles the fourth de-scended from the Alps to obtain the Italian andimperial crowns. In his passage through Milanhe received the visit, and repaid the flattery, ofthe poet-laureat; accepted a medal of Augustus ;and promised, without a smile, to imitate thefounder of the Roman monarchy. A false ap-plication of the names and maxims of antiquitywas the source of the hopes and disappoint-ments of Petrarch ; yet he could not overlookthe difference of times and characters; the im-measurable distance between the first Caesarsand a Bohemian prince, who by the favour of theclergy had been elected the titular head of theGerman aristocracy. Instead of restoring toRome her glory and her provinces, he had boundhimself, by a secret treaty with the pope, to eva-