Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/125

Rh The year 1514 presents us with more that is worthy of notice. We now begin to find him invested with great honours, and raised to a position which shows the confidence reposed in him at so early an age as twenty-eight. It was a high distinction at such an age to be made standard-bearer,—an honour which he held as a glorious remembrance till his death, and was proud of leaving it, amongst many other glorious reminiscences, to his descendants. The fortress of Maran, in Friuli, was besieged by the Venetians, and the inhabitants suffered the most dreadful famine, upon which Maximilian ordered Herberstein and his brother George to raise troops in Styria in order to relieve the place, and to convey provisions into it. Herberstein repulsed the enemy on the 12th of July, and took the leader, Giovanni Vittoria, prisoner. The remembrance of this exploit must have been dear to Herberstein in his old age, as he has immortalized it in two wood-cuts. Immediately after the campaign, the emperor summoned him to Innspruck, where the court was then held, and knighted him, as a reward for his distinguished services, and gave him a yearly salary of three hundred florins. He also gave him rank immediately below his own officers, and not long after he took him into the Imperial Council.

Even so early as the year 1515 Herberstein was employed in important diplomatic missions to the Archbishop of Salzburg; and afterwards to Ulm, Eichstatt, and Bavaria. At the end of the year, he went to Innspruck, where the emperor then was, and re-