Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/239

Rh a marriage between his grandson and Anna, and finding also that Vladislav’ desired the same thing, but that he met with impediments from the plots and contrivances of those who were under the orders of John Zapolski, thought it necessary for his own interest to cast the die, and to put Hungary to the test by force of arms; in which war I made my first essay in the career of a soldier. But as it happened that Vladislav’s son, Lewis, was born in the midst of this strife of arms, a truce was entered into, and hence a more solid peace was brought about, which ended in Vladislav’s coming to Maximilian at Vienna, together with his son already crowned, and his daughter and his brother Sigismund, king of Poland. The nuptials with Anne were then solemnized at Vienna, and all the enmity and suspicious feeling which had been engendered by the ambition of John Zapolski being extinguished, these princes were united in a lasting bond of amity. So great was the mutual satisfaction occasioned by this union between King Sigismund and the Emperor Maximilian, that the latter has sometimes said, in my hearing, that he would willingly go to heaven or hell with such a king. It was a vulgar saying concerning Lewis, that he was immaturely born, came of age too soon, and was immaturely married; that he came too early to the throne, and met with an untimely death. To these sayings it may be added, that his death was as disastrous to his kingdom of Hungary, and all the neighbouring states, as it was immature. But although Lewis was not well advised, it is certain that he was excellently well disposed towards his country and his subjects, and sought every means of benefiting them; for when he became aware that Soliman, after the capture of Belgrade, was planning a new and formidable expedition against himself, he, being a young man, sent a Pole, the master of his household, named Trepca, to his uncle, Kang Sigismund, beseeching him in the most anxious and earnest manner not to consider it a hardship to come to meet