Adriano finds his opportunity for revenge in confirming a story which gains credence with the fickle Roman populace; he declares that Rienzi is a traitor to his country, and meant himself to become a noble through the marriage of his sister with Adriano.
Rienzi appears in a procession, marching toward church. As he places his foot on the steps, a malediction sounds from within the sanctuary. Cardinal Raimondo steps to the door and pronounces upon him the ban of excommunication. The nobles have won victory for their cause by an alliance with the Church.
In the hall of the capitol, Rienzi prays that his work for freedom may not be undone. Irene and Adriano enter, and Rienzi begs them to flee together from danger. But Irene refuses to desert her brother's cause. The noise outside the besieged capitol increases.
The scene shifts to the open square, where the populace, deaf to Rienzi, who from a balcony seeks to address them, sets fire to the capitol. Adriano, darting in and out among the mob, sees Irene arm in arm with her brother, within a huge flower of flame which curls about them.
Through the fire he rushes toward her; at that moment the capitol collapses, and he is caught with Rienzi and Irene in its ruins. The nobles turn upon the people, and with drawn swords cut them down like blades of grass.
WHERE ROOSEVELT USED THE PHRASE "THE STRENUOUS LIFE."
In speaking to you, men of the greatest city of the West, men of the State which gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men who preeminently and distinctly embody all that is most American in the American character, I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life—the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.
Theodore Roosevelt in a speech delivered before the Hamilton Club of Chicago, April 10, 1899.