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which was caused by the war, but was obliged to take a circuitous route and make a passage over many small rivers. Between Wilna and Drissa, he lost the company of the Milanese ambassador, who could not endure the severity of the climate. Near Drissa, he was exposed to a formidable trial of courage, for the passage over the Dwina was on a small strip of ice, and he was informed that not long before six hundred Russians had tried to cross on the ice, and were all drowned. Here he was again joined by the Russian ambassador. At Opochka he was obliged to make a circuit, because it was besieged by Sigismund, although that monarch was at the same time sending messengers of peace to Moscow. He reached Novogorod on Palm Sunday, the 4th of April, and was received with every courtesy by the governor, who expressed his wish to render the stay which he hoped he would make as agreeable as possible, but his real object was of course to gain time, it being the custom immediately to write to Moscow to announce the arrival of an ambassador and obtain permission for the continuance of his journey. Herberstein was anxious to proceed, but was obliged to stay a week in that city, which was even then a place of great note. The German merchants of Novogorod were so impressed with the importance of Herberstein’s journey, and regarded him as so remarkable a person, that they begged him to present them with the sledge in which he had travelled from Cracow, and suspended it in their church for a memorial. He left his own servants and horses at Novogorod, and