exchanged for merchandize or money. The member of a well-regulated fociety is defended from private wrongs by the laws, and from public injuries by the arms of the ftate; and the tax which he pays is a juft equivalent for the protection which he receives. But the guard of his life, his honour, and his fortune, was abandoned to the private fword of a feudal chief; and if his own temper had been inclined to moderation and patience, the public contempt would have roufed him to deeds of violence and revenge. The entertainment of his vaffals and foldiers, their pay and rewards, their arms and horfes, surpassed the measure of the most oppreffive tribute, and the deftruction which he inflicted on his neighbours was often retaliated on his own lands. The costly ele. gance of palaces and gardens was fuperfeded by the laborious and expenfive conftruction of strong caftles, on the fummits of the most inacceffible rocks; and fome of thefe, like the fortrefs of Canoffa in the Appenine, were built and provided to sustain a three years fiege against a royal army. But his defence in this world was lefs burthenfome to a wealthy lord than his falvation in the next: the demands of his chapel, his priests, his alms, his offerings, his pilgrimages, were inceffantly renewed; the monaftery chofen for his fepulchre was endowed with his faireft poffeffions, and the naked heir might often complain, that his father's fins had been redeemed at too high a price. The marquis Azo was not exempt from the contagion of the times: his devotion was amufed and inflamed by the frequent miracles which were performed in his prefence; and the monks of Vangadizza, who yielded to his requeft

the arm of a dead faint, were ignorant of the value of that ineftimable jewel. After fatisfying the demands of war and fuperftition, he might appropriate the rest of his revenue to ufe and pleasure. But the Italians of the eleventh century were imperfectly skilled in the liberal and mechanic arts: the objects of foreign luxury were furnifhed at an exorbitant price by the merchants of Pifa and Venice; and the fuperfluous wealth, which could not purchase the real comforts of life, was idly wafted on fome rare occafions of vanity and pomp. Such were the nuptials of Boniface, duke or marquis of Tuscany, whofe family was long afterwards united with that of Azo, by the marriage of their children. Thefe nuptials were celebrated on the banks of the Mincius, which the fancy of Virgil has decorated with a more beautiful picture. The princes and people of Italy were invited to the feast, which continued three months: the fertile meadows, which are interfected by the flow and winding courfe of the river, were covered with innumerable tents, and the bridegroom difplayed and diverfified the fcenes of his proud and taftelefs magnificence. All the utenfils of fervice were of filver, and his horfes were fhod with plates of the fame metal, loofely nailed, and carelefsly dropped, to indicate his contempt of riches. An image of plenty and profufion was expreffed in the banquet: the most delicious wines were drawn in buckets from the well; and the fpices of the east were ground in water-mills like common flour. The dramatic and mufical arts were in the rudeft ftate; but the marquis had fummoned the moft popular fingers, harpers, and buffoons, to exercife their talents on

this fplendid theatre. Their exhibitions were applauded, and they applauded the liberality of their patron. After this feftival, I might remark a fingulár gift of the fame Boniface to the emperor Henry III. a chariot and oxen of folid filver, which were defigned only as a vehicle for a hogfhead of vinegar. If fuch an example fhould feem above the imitation of Azo himfelf, the marquis of Efte was at leaft fuperior in wealth and dignity to the vaffals of his compeer. One of these vaffals, the viscount of Mantua, prefented the German monarch with one hundred falcons, and one hundred bay horses, a grateful contribution to the pleafures of a royal fportfman. In that age, the proud diftinction be tween the nobles and princes of Italy was guarded with jealous ceremony: the vifcount of Mantua had never been feated at the table of his immediate lord: he yielded to the invitation of the emperor; and a ftag's fkin, filled with pieces of gold, was graciously ac cepted by the marquis of Tufcany as the fine of his prefumption.

3. The temporal felicity of Azo was crowned by the long poffeffion of honours and riches: he died in the year one thoufand and ninety-feven, aged upwards of an hundred years; and the term of his mortal existence was almoft commenfurate with the lapfe of the eleventh century. The character, as well as the fituation of the marquis of Efte, rendered him an actor in the revolutions of that memorable period: but time has caft a veil over the virtues and vices of the man, and I must be content to mark fome of the æras, the mileftones of his life, which measure the extent and intervals of the vacant way. Albert-Azo the fecond was

no more than seventeen when he first drew the fword of rebellion of patriotifm, when he was involved with his grand-father, his father, and his three uncles, in a common profcription. In the vigour of manhood, about his fiftieth year, the Ligurian marquis governed the cities of Milan and Genoa, as the minifter of imperial authority. He was upwards of feventy when he paffed the Alps to vindicate the inheritance of Maine for the children of his fecond marriage. He became the friend and fervant of Gregory VII., and in one of his epiftles, that ambitious pontiff recommends the marquis Azo as the mott faithful and best beloved of the Italian princes; as the proper channel through which a king of Hungary might convey his petitions to the apoftolic throne. In the mighty contest between the crown and the mitre, the marquis Azo and the countefs Matilda led the powers of Italy, and when the ftandard of St. Peter was difplayed, neither the age of the one, nor the fex of the other, could detain them from the field. With thefe two affectionate chents the pope maintained his ftation in the fortress of Canoffa, while the emperor, barefoot on the frozen ground, fafted and prayed three days at the foot of the rock: they were witneffes to the abject ceremony of the penance and pardon of Henry IV.; and in the triumph of the church, a patriot might foresee the deliverance of Italy from the German yoke. At the time of this event the marquis of Efte was above fourscore; but in the twenty following years he was ftill alive and active amidst the revolutions of peace and war. The last act which he fubfcribed is dated above a century after his birth and in that act the venerable chief

poffeffes

poffeffes the command of his faculties, his family, and his fortune. In this rare prerogative of longevity Albert-Azo II. ftands alone; nor can I recollect in the authentic annals of mortality a fingle example of a king or prince, of a statefiman or general, of a philofopher or poet, whofe life has been extended beyond the period of an hundred years. Nor fhould this obfervation, which is juftified by univerfal experience, be thought either ftrange or furprising. It has been found, that of twenty-four thoufand newborn infants, feven only will furvive to attain that diftant term; and much smaller is the proportion of those who will be raifed by fortune or genius, to govern, or afflict, or enlighten, their age or country. The chance that the fame individual fhould draw the two great prizes in the lottery of life, will not eafily be defined by the powers of calculation. Three approximations, which will not haftily be matched, have distinguished the prefent century, Aurungzeb, Cardinal Fleury, and Fontenelle. Had a fortnight more been given to the philofopher, he might have celebrated his fecular feftival; but the lives and labours of the Mogul king and the French minifter were terminated before they had accomplished their ninetieth year. Aftrong conftitution may be the gift of nature; but the few who furvive their contemporaries must have been fuperior to the paffions and appetites which urge the fpeedy decay and diffolution of the mind and body. The marquis of Efte may be prefumed, from his riches and longevity, to have understood the economy of health and fortune.

66 4. I remember a Perfian tale of three old men, who were fucceffively queftioned by a traveller

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as he met them on the road. youngest brother, under the load of a wife and a numerous family, was finking into the grave before his time. The fecond, though much older, was far lefs infirm and decrepid: he had been left a widower and without children. But the lastand eldest of the three brothers still preferved, at an incredible age, the vigour and vivacity of the autamnal feafon he had always preferred a life of celibacy. The enjoyment of domestic freedom could not, however, contribute to the longevity of the marquis Azo: he married three wives; he educated three fons; and it is doubtful whether chance or prudence delayed his firft nuptials till he had at least accomplished the fortieth year of his age. Thefe nuptials were contracted with Cuniza, or Cunegonda, a German maid, whofe ances tors, by their nobility and riches, were diftinguified among the Suabian and Bavarian chiefs; whofe brother was invested by the emperor Henry III. with the dutchy of Carinthia, and the marquifate of Verona, on the confines of the Venetian poffeffions of the house of Efte. The marriage of Azo and Cunegonda was productive of a fon, who received at his baptifm the name of Guelph, to revive and perpetuate the memory of his uncle, his grandfather, and his first progenitors, on the maternal fide. Į have already defined the ample domain which was given as a marriage-portion to the daughter of the Guelphs: but on the failure of heirs male, her fortunate fon inherited the patrimonial eftates of the family, obtained the dukedom of Bavaria, and became the founder of the eldeít, or German branch, of the houfe of Efte, from which the dukes of Brunfwick, the electors of Hanover,

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