Rienzi remained silent. He had released hold of his prisoner, and stood facing him; every now and then regarding his countenance, and again relapsing into thought. At length, casting his eyes round the small chamber thus singularly tenanted, he observed a kind of closet, in which the priests’ robes, and some articles used in the sacred service, were contained. It suggested at once an escape from his dilemma: he pointed to it—
“There, Rodolf of Saxony, shalt thou pass some part of this night—a small penance for thy meditated crime; and tomorrow, as thou lookest for life, thou wilt reveal all.”
“Hark, ye, Tribune,” returned the Saxon, doggedly; “my liberty is in your power, but neither my tongue nor my life. If I consent to be caged in that hole, you must swear on the crossed hilt of the dagger that you now hold, that, on confession of all I know, you pardon and set me free. My employers are enough to glut your rage an’ you were a tiger. If you do not swear this—”
“Ah, my modest friend!—the alternative?”
“I brain myself against the stone wall! Better such a death than the rack!”
“Fool, I want not revenge against such as thou. Be honest, and I swear that, twelve hours after thy confession, thou shalt stand safe and unscathed without the walls of Rome. So help me our Lord and his saints.”
“I am content!—Donner und Hagel, I have lived long enough to care only for my own life, and the great captain’s next to it;—for the rest, I reck not if ye southerns cut each other’s throats, and make all Italy one grave.”
With this benevolent speech, Rodolf entered the closet; but ere Rienzi could close the door, he stepped forth again—
“Hold,” said he: “this blood flows fast. Help me to bandage it, or I shall bleed to death ere my confession.”
“Per fede,” said the Tribune, his strange humour enjoying the man’s cool audacity; “but, considering the service thou wouldst have rendered me, thou art the most pleasant, forbearing, unabashed, good fellow, I have seen this many a year. Give us thine own belt. I little thought my first eve of knighthood would have been so charitably spent!”