Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/160

cxxxii being certain that the archduke Ferdinand, who was newly elected king of Bohemia, would also be entitled to the crown of Hungary, he took advantage of his knowledge of these circumstances to bespeak all the consequent alterations in the relations between his master and the king of Poland, so that when the archduke’s ambassador Johann Mraxi arrived, everything was already prepared and settled; and as Mraxi was taken ill immediately after his arrival in Cracow, Herberstein took the management of the whole affair which Mraxi had been commissioned to carry out.

The ambassadors then travelled by way of Silesia to Prague, where they found the archduke Ferdinand, who, by the free election of the States, was declared king of Bohemia upon the death of Louis, and were in time to be present at the celebration of his coronation. The Russian ambassadors arrived soon after, and Herberstein was sent to receive them, and to escort them through the town of Prague as a guide to show them the curiosities. The beautiful situation and the great size of Prague surprised one of the ambassadors so much that he exclaimed, “This is not a city, it is a kingdom; and a great thing it is to acquire such a kingdom without bloodshed!”

When Herberstein reported the result of his mission to the archduke, and mentioned his negotiations in Poland, Ferdinand considered it necessary immediately to send another ambassador thither, and proposed to Herberstein to undertake the journey. The answer of this indefatigable servant of his royal master was, that although he was very ill, he would