For this outrage the nobles are condemned to death.
Adriano begs for his father's life, and Rienzi weakly relents, and
grants his prayer on condition of the nobles taking an oath of
submission.
In the third act the struggle between the nobles and the people advances
another stage. The nobles have once more broken their oath, and are
drawn up in battle array at the gates of Rome. Rienzi marshals his
forces and prepares to march forth against them. In vain Adriano pleads
once more for pardon. The fortune of war goes in favour of the
plebeians. The nobles are routed, Colonna is slain, and the scene closes
as Adriano vows vengeance over his father's body upon his murderer.
In the fourth act the tide has turned against Rienzi. The citizens
suspect him of treachery to their cause. Adriano joins the ranks of
malcontents, and does all in his power to fire them to vengeance. Rienzi
appears, and is at once surrounded by the conspirators, but in a speech
of noble patriotism he convinces them of their mistakes, and wins them
once more to allegiance. Suddenly the doors of the Lateran Church are
thrown open; the Papal Legate appears, and reads aloud the Bull of
Rienzi's excommunication. Horror-stricken at the awful sentence, the
Tribune's friends forsake him and fly, all save Irene, who, deaf to the
wild entreaties of Adriano, clings to her brother in passionate
devotion.
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