Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/119

Rh Pope Gregory XIII. to abjure the schism, and to join the Roman Church, on condition that he would engage the King of Poland to suspend his conquests. Batory, who was more of a zealous catholic than a good politician, allowing himself to be seduced by those fine promises, withdrew his armies from Russia: and the Czar, seeing that the danger was over, withdrew his word, and laughed at both the King and the Pope; it was, if I may say so, a repetition of the old finesse of the Paleologi, when Constantinople was threatened by the Turks.

The province of Nowogorod is fertile, and commerce had been introduced into it by some privileges that the Empress granted to its merchants. We often spent nights at the houses of those merchants. They wear long beards, and dress after the Asiatic fashion. They travel through the immense extent of the country from the boundaries of China to Poland, and even as far as Leipzig, Frankfort, &c. An image of St. Nicholas, attired in a pure silver robe, bespoke directly the wealth of the landlord.