He, thwarting with just cause their ill design,
Shall thrash the Romans’ pride who overbear;
Shall from their hands the sovereign pontiff take,
With the third Otho, and their leaguer break.
“See Fulke, who to his brother will convey34
All his Italian birth-right, and command
To take a mighty dukedom far away
From his fair home, in Almàyn’s northern land.
There he the house of Saxony shall stay,
And prop the ruin with his saving hand;
This in his mother’s right he shall possess,
And with his progeny maintain and bless.
“More famed for courtesy than warlike deed,
Azo the second, he who next repairs!35
Bertoldo and Albertazo are his seed:
And, lo! the father walkes between his heirs.
By Parma’s walls I see the Germans bleed,
Their second Henry quelled; such trophy bears
The one renowned in story’s future page:
The next shall wed Matilda, chaste and sage.
“His virtues shall deserve so fair a flower,
(And in his age, I wot, no common grace)
To hold the half of Italy in dower,
With that descendent of first Henry’s race.
Rinaldo shall succeed him in his power,36
Pledge of Bertoldo’s wedded love, and chase
Fierce Frederick Barbarossa’s hireling bands,
Saving the church from his rapacious hands.
“Another Azo rules Verona’s town,37
With its fair fields; and two great chiefs this while
(One wears the papal, one the imperial crown),38
The baron, Marquis of Ancona style.
But to show all who rear the gonfalon
Of the consistory, amid that file,
Were task too long; as long to tell each deed
Achieved for Rome by thy devoted seed.
“See Fulke and Obyson,39 more Azos, Hughs!
Both Henrys!—mark the father and his boy.
Two Guelphs: the first fair Umbria’s land subdues,40
And shall Spoleto’s ducal crown enjoy.
Behold the princely phantom that ensues,
Shall turn fair Italy’s long grief to joy;
I speak of the fifth Azo of thy strain,41
By whom shall Ezelin be quelled and slain.
“Fierce Ezelin, that most inhuman lord,
Who shall be deemed by men a child of hell,
And work such evil, thinning with the sword
Who in Ausonia’s wasted cities dwell;
Rome shall no more her Anthony record,
Her Marius, Sylla, Nero, Cajus fell.
And this fifth Azo shall to scathe and shame
Put Frederick, second Caeser of the name.42
“He, with his better sceptre well contented,
Shall rule the city, seated by the streams,43
Where Phoebus to his plaintive lyre lamented
The son, ill-trusted with the father’s beams;
Where Cygnus spread his pinions, and the scented
Amber was wept, as fabling poet dreams.
To him such honour shall the church decree;
Fit guerdon of his works, and valour’s fee.
“But does no laurel for his brother twine,44
Aldobrandino, who will carry cheer
To Rome (when Otho, with the Ghibelline,
Into the troubled capital strikes fear),
And make the Umbri and Piceni sign
Their shame, and sack the cities far and near;
Then hopeless to relieve the sacred hold,
Sue to the neighbouring Florentine for gold:
“And trust a noble brother to his hands,
Boasting no dearer pledge, the pact to bind:
And next, victorious o’er the German bands,
Give his triumphant ensigns to the wind:
To the afflicted church restore her lands,
And take due vengeance of Celano’s kind.
Then die, cut off in manhood’s early flower,
Beneath the banners of the Papal power?
“He, dying, leaves his brother Azo heir
Of Pesaro and fair Ancona’s reign,
And all the cities which ’twixt Tronto are,45
And green Isauro’s stream, from mount to main;
With other heritage, more rich and rare,
Greatness of mind, and faith without a strain.
All else is Fortune’s in this mortal state;
But Virtue soars beyond her love and hate.
“In good Rinaldo equal worth shall shine,46
(Such is the promise of his early fire)
If such a hope of thine exalted line,
Dark Fate and Fortune wreck not in their ire.
Alas! from Naples in this distant shrine,
Naples, where he is hostage for his sire,
His dirge is heard: A stripling of thy race,
Young Obyson, shall fill his grandsire’s place.47
“This lord to his dominion shall unite
Gay Reggio, joined to Modena’s bold land.
And his redoubted valour lend such light,
The willing people call him to command.
Sixth of the name, his Azo rears upright48
The church’s banner in his noble hand:
Fair Adria’s fief to him in dower shall bring
The child of second Charles, Sicilia’s king.
“Behold in yonder friendly group agreed.
Many fair princes of illustrious name;
Obyson, Albert famed for pious deed,
Aldobrandino, Nicholas the lame.49
But we may pass them by, for better speed,
Faenza conquered, and their feats and fame;
With Adria (better held and surer gain)
Which gives her title to the neighbouring main:
“And that fair town, whose produce is the rose,50
The rose which gives it name in Grecian speech:
That, too, which fishy marshes round enclose,51
And Po’s two currents threat with double breach;
Whose townsmen loath the lazy calm’s repose,
And pray that stormy waves may lash the beach.
I pass, mid towns and towers, a countless store,
Argenta, Lugo, and a thousand more.
“See Nicholas, whom in his tender age,52
The willing people shall elect their lord;
He who shall laugh to scorn the civil rage
Of the rebellious Tideus and his horde;
Whose infantine delight shall be to wage
The mimic fight, and sweat with spear and sword:
And through the discipline such nurture yields,
Shall flourish as the flower of martial fields.
“By him rebellious plans are overthrown,
And turned upon the rash contriver’s head;
And so each stratagem of warfare blown,
That vainly shall the cunning toils be spread.
To the third Otho this too late is
