Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/138

cx plained in a long speech the object of his mission, of which however the interpreter never would translate more than two or three words at once. Herberstein was at the conclusion of his speech desired again to sit down, when the grand-prince himself invited him to dinner, as it was customary that foreign ambassadors should dine with the grand-prince on the day of their presentation, and on the day of their taking leave.

A few days after the presentation of Herberstein, the negotiations concerning the peace with Poland began, but before the Boyars, whom the grand-prince had appointed for that purpose, would enter into any discussion, they demanded, in the name of their master, that the king of Poland should make his defence for having besieged Opochka, an occurrence which had only recently taken place; and, at the same time required, that if peace were really his desire, he should himself send ambassadors to Moscow. Herberstein thought he might modify this demand by proposing that both parties should send their mediators to Riga, or some other place on the Lithuanian frontier, but the grand-prince insisted on having the Polish ambassadors sent to Moscow. Herberstein, therefore, on the 27th of April, despatched his nephew, John von Thurn, to Wilna, with a letter to the king of Poland, requesting him, in the name of Maximilian, to yield to the wish of the grand-prince, and to send ambassadors to his court. He himself endeavoured zealously to clear away all the difficulties caused by the mistrust against Sigismund, and he succeeded in