the court. At first sight it may appear that such duties as these would be below the dignity of a haughty Aztec grandee, yet we find the nobles of Europe during the middle ages not only filling the same positions, but jealous of their right to do so, and complaining loudly if deprived of them. Sismondi tells us that the count of Anjou, under Louis VI., claimed the office of grand seneschal of France; that is, to carry dishes to the king's table on state days. The court of Charlemagne was crowded with officers of every rank, some of the most eminent of whom exercised functions about the royal person which would have been thought fit only for slaves in the palace of Augustus or Antonine. The free-born Franks saw nothing menial in the titles of cup-bearer, steward, marshal, and master of the horse, which are still borne by some of the noblest families in many parts of Europe.
As soon as habits of submission and an appreciation of the honors showered upon them had taken root among his great vassals, Techotlalatzin subdivided the twenty-six provinces of his kingdom into sixty-five departments. The ancient lords were not by this measure despoiled of all their authority, nor of those estates which were their private property; but the jurisdiction they exercised in person or through their officials was greatly diminished by the nomination of thirty-five new governors, chosen by the king, and of whose fidelity he was well assured. This was a mortal blow to the great aristocrats, and a preliminary step toward the total abolition of feudal power. But the master-stroke was yet to come. The inhabitants of each province were carefully counted and divided into sections. They were then changed about from place to place, in numbers proportioned to the size and population of the territory. For example, from a division containing six thousand people, two thousand were taken and transported into the territory of another lord, from the number of whose vassals two thousand
