Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/147

Rh cable relations between the two countries, and a renewal of the league concluded with Maximilian against the Poles. Charles and Ferdinand, however, were still influenced by the same motives as had caused the first mission of Herberstein, viz., to bring about a durable peace between the grand-prince and the king of Poland. Sigismund, on the other hand, seemed to wish to trust the matter solely to the success of his arms, and possessed too much pride to ask for peace so far as he was concerned. Count Nugaroli, therefore, was sent on behalf of Charles the Fifth, and Herberstein on behalf of the archduke Ferdinand, to Hungary, in order that the king of Poland might be persuaded through the mediation of the king of Hungary; and in this they were successful.

Herberstein, after his return to Vienna, gave an account of the success of his mission to the archduke Ferdinand, then at Augsburg, and received from him a letter of praise, together with his credentials for the embassy to Russia; and, at the same time, Ferdinand desired him to write an account of all the things he might observe in this journey, as he had done before. Charles the Fifth, likewise, who had been obliged by the disturbances in Spain to return to Toledo the year before, expressed his approbation of the choice of Herberstein in a letter to his brother, as well as of the instructions given to him, at the same time bestowing the utmost praise upon Herberstein with respect to his former embassy. A copy of this letter was sent by the archduke to Herberstein, who already had de-