Rienzi | Page 9

my
palaces of the air. Our parents listen to me as if I were uttering fine
things out of a book; and my dear mother, Heaven bless her! wipes her

eyes, and says, 'Hark, what a scholar he is!' As for the monks, if I ever
dare look from my Livy, and cry 'Thus should Rome be again!' they
stare, and gape, and frown, as though I had broached an heresy. But
you, sweet brother, though you share not my studies, sympathize so
kindly with all their results - you seem so to approve my wild schemes,
and to encourage my ambitious hopes - that sometimes I forget our
birth, our fortunes, and think and dare as if no blood save that of the
Teuton Emperor flowed through our veins."
"Methinks, dear Cola," said the younger brother, "that Nature played us
an unfair trick - to you she transmitted the royal soul, derived from our
father's parentage; and to me only the quiet and lowly spirit of my
mother's humble lineage."
"Nay," answered Cola, quickly, "you would then have the brighter
share, - for I should have but the Barbarian origin, and you the Roman.
Time was, when to be a simple Roman was to be nobler than a northern
king. - Well, well, we may live to see great changes!"
"I shall live to see thee a great man, and that will content me," said the
younger, smiling affectionately; "a great scholar all confess you to be
already: our mother predicts your fortunes every time she hears of your
welcome visits to the Colonna."
"The Colonna!" said Cola, with a bitter smile; "the Colonna - the
pedants! - They affect, dull souls, the knowledge of the past, play the
patron, and misquote Latin over their cups! They are pleased to
welcome me at their board, because the Roman doctors call me learned,
and because Nature gave me a wild wit, which to them is pleasanter
than the stale jests of a hired buffoon. Yes, they would advance my
fortunes - but how? by some place in the public offices, which would
fill a dishonoured coffer, by wringing, yet more sternly, the hard-earned
coins from our famishing citizens! If there be a vile thing in the world,
it is a plebeian, advanced by patricians, not for the purpose of righting
his own order, but for playing the pander to the worst interests of theirs.
He who is of the people but makes himself a traitor to his birth, if he
furnishes the excuse for these tyrant hypocrites to lift up their hands
and cry - 'See what liberty exists in Rome, when we, the patricians, thus

elevate a plebeian!' Did they ever elevate a plebeian if he sympathized
with plebeians? No, brother; should I be lifted above our condition, I
will be raised by the arms of my countrymen, and not upon their
necks."
"All I hope, is, Cola, that you will not, in your zeal for your fellow-
citizens, forget how dear you are to us. No greatness could ever
reconcile me to the thought that it brought you danger."
"And I could laugh at all danger, if it led to greatness. But greatness -
greatness! Vain dream! Let us keep it for our night sleep. Enough of
my plans; now, dearest brother, of yours."
And, with the sanguine and cheerful elasticity which belonged to him,
the young Cola, dismissing all wilder thoughts, bent his mind to listen,
and to enter into, the humbler projects of his brother. The new boat and
the holiday dress, and the cot removed to a quarter more secure from
the oppression of the barons, and such distant pictures of love as a dark
eye and a merry lip conjure up to the vague sentiments of a boy; - to
schemes and aspirations of which such objects made the limit, did the
scholar listen, with a relaxed brow and a tender smile; and often, in
later life, did that conversation occur to him, when he shrank from
asking his own heart which ambition was the wiser.
"And then," continued the younger brother, "by degrees I might save
enough to purchase such a vessel as that which we now see, laden,
doubtless, with corn and merchandise, bringing - oh, such a good return
- that I could fill your room with books, and never hear you complain
that you were not rich enough to purchase some crumbling old monkish
manuscript. Ah, that would make me so happy!" Cola smiled as he
pressed his brother closer to his breast.
"Dear boy," said he, "may it rather be mine to provide for your wishes!
Yet methinks the masters of yon vessel have no enviable possession,
see how anxiously the men look round, and behind, and before:
peaceful traders though