CHAPTER 4.V.The Night and its Incidents.
With the following twilight, Rome was summoned to the commencement of the most magnificent spectacle the Imperial City had witnessed since the fall of the Caesars.

It had been a singular privilege, arrogated by the people of Rome, to confer upon their citizens the order of knighthood.
Twenty years before, a Colonna and an Orsini had received this popular honour.

Rienzi, who designed it as the prelude to a more important ceremony, claimed from the Romans a similar distinction.

From the Capitol to the Lateran swept, in long procession, all that Rome boasted of noble, of fair, and brave.

First went horsemen without number, and from all the neighbouring parts of Italy, in apparel that well befitted the occasion.