take charge of us, and to conduct us to Moscow, but on entering either of our houses, dressed as they were, in suitable apparel, they by no means thought of uncovering their heads, and considered that it was our place to do so first; but this we neglected to do. When, however, the message of each prince had, in its turn, to be delivered and received, at the mention of the prince's name we made our obeisance. In the same manner, however, as our arrival at Smolensko had been delayed through our detention at various places, so were we also detained longer than was seemly in that city. But to prevent our being too seriously offended by the extension of the delay, and that they themselves might not seem in any way to slight our wish, they came to us more than once to say that we should depart tomorrow morning; we consequently rapidly prepared ourselves for departure in the morning, and waited in readiness the whole of the day. At length in the evening they came with a considerable amount of ceremony; but the reply was, that they could by no means start on that day. A promise, however, was again given, as before, that they would enter on the journey in the morning; but a similar delay occurred, for with difficulty we made our departure on the third day after, and the whole of that day we were kept fasting.
On the day following they made arrangements for a longer journey than we could accomplish by our means of conveyance. Meanwhile all the rivers had overflowed, through the quantity of water occasioned by the melting of the winter snows; the smaller streams also, which were not confined by any banks, poured down so great a force of water as to render them impassable without the greatest exertion; even the bridges were set afloat, by the superabundance of the water, within one, two, or three hours of their construction. Count Leonhard Nugaroli, the emperor's ambassador, very narrowly escaped drowning on the second day after our departure from. Smolensko. In fact, while I was standing upon the
