The two princesses still remained his faithful friends, until Tasso's own want of tact alienated the sympathies of Leonora.

When he returned in 1576, he found the beautiful Eleonora Sanvitale, Countess of Scandiano, at Court.

Whether he really fell in love with her at first sight, or pretended to do so in order to revive Leonora d'Este's affection by jealousy, is uncertain.[25] At any rate he paid the countess such marked attentions, and wrote for her and a lady of her suite such splendid poetry, that all Ferrara rang with this amour.

A sonnet in Tasso's handwriting, addressed to Leonora d'Este and commented by her own pen, which even Guasti, no credulous believer in the legend of the poet's love, accepts as genuine, may be taken as affording proof that the princess was deeply wounded by her servant's conduct.[26] [Footnote 24: _Lettere_, vol.iii.p.

xxx.