Rienzi by Edward Bulwer-lytton — Read

Enamoured of the beauty, and almost equally so of the lofty spirit, of / the Signora Cesarini, as was the warlike Cardinal of Spain, love with / him was not so master a passion as that ambition of complete success / in all the active designs of life, which had hitherto animated his / character and signalized his career. Musing, as he left the Signora, on / her wish for the restoration of the Roman Tribune, his experienced and / profound intellect ran swiftly through whatever advantages to his own / political designs might result from that restoration. We have seen that / it was the intention of the new Pontiff to attempt the recovery of the / patrimonial territories, now torn from him by the gripe of able and / disaffected tyrants. With this view, a military force was already in / preparation, and the Cardinal was already secretly nominated the chief. / But the force was very inadequate to the enterprise; and Albornoz / depended much upon the moral strength of the cause in bringing recruits / to his standard in his progress through the Italian states. The / wonderful rise of Rienzi had excited an extraordinary enthusiasm in his / favour through all the free populations of Italy. And this had been yet / more kindled and inflamed by the influential eloquence of Petrarch, who, / at that time, possessed of a power greater than ever, before or since, / (not even excepting the Sage of Ferney,) wielded by a single literary / man, had put forth his boldest genius in behalf of the Roman Tribune. / Such a companion as Rienzi in the camp of the Cardinal might be a magnet / of attraction to the youth and enterprise of Italy. On nearing Rome, he / might himself judge how far it would be advisable to reinstate Rienzi / as a delegate of the papal power. And, in the meanwhile, the Roman's / influence might be serviceable, whether to awe the rebellious nobles / or conciliate the stubborn people. On the other hand, the Cardinal / was shrewd enough to perceive that no possible good could arise from / Rienzi's present confinement. With every month it excited deeper and / more universal sympathy. To his lonely dungeon turned half the hearts / of republican Italy. Literature had leagued its new and sudden, and / therefore mighty and even disproportioned, power with his cause; and the / Pope, without daring to be his judge, incurred the odium of being his / gaoler. "A popular prisoner," said the sagacious Cardinal to himself, / "is the most dangerous of guests. Restore him as your servant, or / destroy him as your foe! In this case I see no alternative but acquittal / or the knife! " In these reflections that able plotter, deep in the / Machiavelism of the age, divorced the lover from the statesman.

Recurring now to the former character, he felt some disagreeable and / uneasy forebodings at the earnest interest of his mistress. Fain would / he have attributed, either to some fantasy of patriotism or some purpose / of revenge, the anxiety of the Cesarini; and there was much in her stern / and haughty character which favoured that belief. But he was forced / to acknowledge to himself some jealous apprehension of a sinister and / latent motive, which touched his vanity and alarmed his love. "Howbeit," / he thought, as he turned from his unwilling fear, "I can play with her / at her own weapons; I can obtain the release of Rienzi, and claim my / reward. If denied, the hand that opened the dungeon can again rivet the / chain. In her anxiety is my power!"