Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/149

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INTRODUCTION.
cxxi

himself, that the emperor was forming a new league with the crown-prince against him. He therefore appeared at the first not to take any notice of the embassy; and contrary to the law of nations, the ambassadors were not received, or provided for, either at the frontier of Poland, or during their travels through that country. The king was then attending the diet at Pedrikov’, to which place the ambassadors directed their course, and at some distance they sent messengers to the court to give notice of their arrival, but an answer was sent back to them that the diet was already at an end, and that the king was about to go to Cracow, where they would be received. Upon their arrival in the capital, they were much astonished that there was nobody to welcome them, and that there was not the least preparation made for their reception. Moreover, they had reason to apprehend from different circumstances that the continuation of their journey through Poland would be impeded. Six days after their arrival, however, they obtained an audience of the king, in which they informed him that they were sent to Moscow to negotiate peace between him and the grand-prince, and begged his assistance in effecting so desirable an object, by making some concessions himself. Sigismund, however, received this communication very ungraciously, and asked the ambassadors indignantly, who had desired their masters to trouble themselves about him? that he knew well enough how to bring his enemies to their senses, and wanted no mediator. “What have your masters to do with the Muscovite,”