flourishing condition the tribune had flattered himself he should procure for them. Many noble, though unfortunate exiles appeared again, and enjoyed the blessings of a tranquillity they had long since been strangers to.

The tribune, flushed with his success, judged no time so proper as the present to make himself in appearance, what he undeniably was in reality, absolute master. Although

the pope's vicar, whom he had politically desired for his associate in the government, had never yet taken the least umbrage at his proceedings, he declared he could no longer suffer that good prelate to administer with him. Desirous always of managing the holy father, he at the same time sent an ambassador to Avignon, to acquaint that court with the prodigious progress of what he was pleased to call the Good Establishment. The pope and cardinals were so surprised at the information, that the ambassador on his return assured Rienzi they could not persuade themselves it was true if it was, that it carried at least every appearance of a miracle. But the news which came from all quarters, and the splendour of the numerous embassies at Rome from all the countries of Italy, as well as the kingdoms adjacent, soon removed their doubts, and set the matter beyond all dispute. It was not the exiled, the oppressed only, who came to plead at the tribunal of Rienzi. States, republics, and crowned heads made at the same bar their appearance. ambassadors, who arrived at Rome almost at the same time, gave such a lustre to the glory of the tribune, as caused the Romans to imagine the time was now approaching, when Rome (according to his predictions) should behold kings laying down on heaps their sceptres, and acknowledging her to be the seat of empire. There was no considerable state in Italy but sent an ambassador extraordinary-Florence, Arrezo, Velletri, Trivoli, Fologni, &c. Every ambassador was of the highest distinction by birth, merit, and knowledge. All offered the Romans, in the person of the tribune, from their respective masters, men and money for the benefit of the good establishment. Such effect had the name of Rienzi, resounded over Europe, upon its potentates! Perusa sent two ambassadors for each of its cinque ports, all of the first quality, and attended each by ten soldiers,

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who formed a sort of little army, and often shone at the tournaments of Rome.

Florence no less distinguished herself by the magnificence of her embassy. The republic of Venice sent a letter sealed with lead, wherein she offered all her subjects and possessions to that idol, the good establishment. The tyrant of Milan Luchino Visconti, joined heart and hand, and determined to follow the plan, in order to suppress the power of his own nobility, yet proceed with prudence and caution. It was particularly remarkable that Gaeta, willing to free herself from the pope's dominion, sent the tribune a present of ten thousand florins, which he accepted without the least scruple or hesitation. A proof sufficient, notwithstanding all his protestations, of his regard for the court of Avignon. The tribune found not at first the same favourable dispositions in some of the other petty tyrants of Lombardy. The governor of Bologna, the marquis of Ferrara, the vernors of Verona and Mantua, and several more, had at first sent couriers only without any regard; but afterwards, upon mature deliberation on all that had passed, they sent their ambassadors with the same pomp and the same offers as the other princes.

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The embassy of the emperor, although a private one, was more honourable than all the rest for Rienzi, upon account of the esteem and confidence of so puissant a monarch. Lewis duke of Bavaria, had (as we have observed before) been excommunicated by the pope the preceding year, and seen his rival Charles of Luxembourg nominated by his holiness emperor, and who, by the death of his father king John, killed at the battle of Cressy the 26th of August, 1346, became king of Bohemia.

The duke of Bavaria, tired with the troublesome life he had led for the space of thirty-two years since his election, occasioned by his divisions with the popes in Germany and Italy, made new efforts to bring about a reconciliation with the holy see. He conceived a high opinion of Rienzi, and made choice of him as his most efficacious mediator with Clement VI. to procure a sincere accommodation, and take off his excommunication, which he had sent by the hands of his ambassadors.

We shall see presently with what air

the tribune undertook the management of this affair, vainly imagining himself the arbiter of every prince and potentate.

Two crowned heads courted his protection, and submitted to his arbitration. But of all the embassies he had yet received, none yielded his glory so great a lustre as that sent him about the beginning of October, upon occasion of the tragical death of Andrew king of Naples. Before we relate an event so memorable to posterity, and glorious to Rienzi, it is highly necessary to go back to those that happened some time before.

Robert king of Naples died on the 19th January, 1343, in the eightieth year of his age, and thirty-third of his reign. "He was," says Villani, "the wisest king the christian world had beheld for five centuries past. A prince of vast sense and knowledge, a great divine, and an excellent philosopher; he was a kind master, a lover of his people; endowed with every virtue; he was indeed in his old age somewhat covetous, yet that foible was excusable upon account of the wars of Sicily, which he was desirous of recovering. Such a lover of the sciences, that being one day rallied for a taste so uncommon in princes, he replied, he would sooner renounce his crown than his book."

As his son the duke of Calabria was dead, who left issue two daughters very young, Robert, on his death-bed, thought to cut a masterly stroke of policy, and restore his kingdom to the children of Charobert, who was of an elder branch and king of Hungary, by marrying these two young princesses to the sons of that monarch. The one of them, whose name was Andrew, he sent for to his court, and gave him in marriage the princess Jane, presumptive heiress to the kingdom of Naples, upon condition that the crown should descend to the youngest princess, if the eldest should happen to die without issue, and that prince Andrew, whom he had created duke of Calabria, should by no means be proclaimed king, nor his princess queen, till he had attained to the age of twenty-two, and she to that of twenty-five. Robert died and left a vast treasure to the princess Jane and her consort, for whom she had no love. Robert had left the administration of the kingdom to his second wife Sanche of Arragon (who retired soon after to a convent), Philip

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bishop of Cavaillon, and other lords. Ambition and the power of a crown soon embarrassed that court, deprived of an old king who had long governed it, devoted to a wicked ministry, ruled by a young queen and her sister, and further embroiled by Clement VI., who pretended that the government of the kingdom of Naples belonged to him by right during the minority of queen Jane. He sent thither cardinal Americus de Chatelus his legate in Italy, after he had declared by a bull, dated in November 28, 1343, that king Robert had no power to nominate the guardians of queen Jane, at least not for the time specified in his will, that what he had done was invalid, and that, upon pain of excommunication, he charged the administrators nominated not to accept of the charge. During these troubles Charles de Duras, by means of his uncle cardinal de Talayrand, obtained a dispensation from the pope to espouse the princess Mary, sister to the young queen his relation, who, by the will of Robert, was designed for Lewis, eldest son of the king of Hungary. But the ambition of Charles, who by this marriage would have cleared a way to the throne without the least regard to the will of Robert, cost him soon afterwards a life, as he was supposed to be concerned in the murder of Andrew, in order to mount himself thereupon, which horrid crime and bloody tragedy it was also thought his uncle the cardinal gave a sanction to. Be that as it may, it is certain that queen Jane gave her consort a perpetual uneasiness. Her youth, her imprudence, her light behaviour, and the intrigues of her court, contributed to make his marriage unhappy, and cause him to fall a victim at the age of nineteen, on September 18, 1345. The king was as ready as the count was averse to go to the bed of the queen his consort. He was called away upon some pretence of business of consequence. He was obliged to come through a gallery where were several lords with their officers. He had scarcely come out of his wife's apartment, before they suddenly shut the door upon him, and seized his person.

One assassin gagged his mouth to prevent his outcry, a second threw a slip knot over his head, while a third pulled him by the feet. No cruelty was omitted to hasten the

death of this unfortunate prince. The murderers threw him out of the window in order to bury the body immediately, that their guilt might be concealed, but were prevented by a domestic, an Hungarian, who saw them, and made an outcry, which obliged them to make off without executing their design. The queen was universally suspected of being an accomplice in this black affair, but never proved so. Several historians have accused her; several have justified her. Those who have accused her pretend that one day, when she was twisting a string of gold and silk, her husband asked her for whom she was making that; she replied, To strangle you, dear. A reply that had no great probability of earnest, but seemed rather a banter. King Andrew might give some reason for dislike in a court so widely different from that of Hungary, wherein he had been educated. He let fall after this incident some menaces in presence of the queen and some lords of the court, whereby he intimated, that as he was crowned, he should take revenge on all those who had before offended him. But without entering farther into the discussion of an intrigue, which must always remain in obscurity, it is sufficient to say, that this grand event became the discourse of all Europe, and procured for Rienzi a character the most glorious for a sovereign, that of being arbiter of the differences subsisting between the princes of the earth his contemporaries.

Lewis of Anjou, first of that name, king of Hungary, and brother of Andrew, sent to the tribune two ambassadors to notify the solemn embassy he was preparing to send to him, to make interest with him and the people of Rome for vengeance upon the murderer of king Andrew, and to put the affair entirely into his hands by appointing him the judge. The tribune, elevated to the highest degree at a deputation of such importance, resolved to grant an audience in so distinguishing a manner as should convey to his own people and foreigners the grandest ideas of the majesty of his tribunal. It was on a Saturday, the usual day he came to administer justice to the public, and inflict penalties on transgressors, he appeared with a crown and a leaden sceptre with a globe and cross. When the two ambassadors,