Presently the train came in view,--a gallant company, in truth; horsemen
in front, riding two abreast, where the path permitted, their steeds
caparisoned superbly, their plumes waving gaily, and the gleam of their
corselets glittering through the shades of the dusky twilight. A large
and miscellaneous crowd, all armed, some with pikes and mail, others
with less warlike or worse fashioned weapons, followed the cavaliers;
and high above plume and pike floated the blood-red banner of the
Orsini, with the motto and device (in which was ostentatiously displayed
the Guelfic badge of the keys of St. Peter) wrought in burnished gold.
A momentary fear crossed the boy's mind, for at that time, and in that
city, a nobleman begirt with his swordsmen was more dreaded than a wild
beast by the plebeians; but it was already too late to fly--the train
were upon him.

"Ho, boy!" cried the leader of the horsemen, Martino di Porto, one of
the great House of the Orsini; "hast thou seen a boat pass up the
river?--But thou must have seen it--how long since?"

"I saw a large boat about half an hour ago," answered the boy, terrified
by the rough voice and imperious bearing of the cavalier.

"Sailing right a-head, with a green flag at the stern?"

"The same, noble sir."

"On, then! we will stop her course ere the moon rise," said the baron.
"On!--let the boy go with us, lest he prove traitor, and alarm the
Colonna."