Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/162

cxxxiv that country. He became master of Buda, and shortly after of the greater part of the kingdom, and was at length crowned king of Hungary at Gran, on the 13th of November 1527. As it was to be feared that the pretender to the crown of Hungary would succeed in gaining the assistance of his brother-in-law Sigismund, Ferdinand thought it necessary to send an embassy to Poland, of which embassy Herberstein had the essential management, and had the special honour of being entrusted with separate private instructions. This gave rise to so many private interviews with the king, that it caused the envy of his colleagues, and they even went so far as to complain to the king on the subject. His majesty himself explained the cause of the preference given to Herberstein, saying that it was because he had been to Poland many times before, and was so much initiated in Polish affairs, that he himself was unwilling that every body should know all that Herberstein was already acquainted with. In returning from Poland he had a narrow escape, as Nicolas von Tschaplitz, an old enemy of his, laid wait for him, with the view of wreaking his vengeance on him, and he only saved his life by having accidentally chosen another road for returning. After his return to Vienna, he was taken ill of the Hungarian sickness, which soon increased so much, that there was great fear for his life, and the recovery was slow, and required several months of quiet life to restore his strength. Meanwhile, the Turkish Sultan Suliman, having become an ally of John Zapolski, had sent back with inso-