If
such an example should seem above the imitation of Azo
himself, the Marquis of Este was at least superior in wealth
and dignity to the vassals of his compeer. One of these
vassals, the Viscount of Mantua, presented the German
monarch with one hundred falcons and one hundred bay horses,
a grateful contribution to the pleasures of a royal
sportsman. In that age the proud distinction between the
nobles and princes of Italy was guarded with jealous
ceremony. The Viscount of Mantua had never been seated at
the table of his immediate lord; he yielded to the
invitation of the Emperor; and a stag's skin filled with
pieces of gold was graciously accepted by the Marquis of
Tuscany as the fine of his presumption.
"The temporal felicity of Azo was crowned by the long
possession of honour and riches; he died in the year 1097,
aged upwards of an hundred years; and the term of his mortal
existence was almost commensurate with the lapse of the
eleventh century. The character as well as the situation of
the Marquis of Este rendered him an actor in the revolutions
of that memorable period; but time has cast a veil over the
virtues and vices of the man, and I must be content to mark
some of the eras, the milestones of his which measure the
extent and intervals of the vacant way.
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