Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/169

cross upon these letters, the prince arose, and addressing the Lithuanian ambassadors, explained in a long speech that he should not have refused peace, recommended by the special request and instigation of the great princes, whose ambassadors they saw then present, if that peace could have been brought about upon any suitable terms; but as it was impossible to enter upon a lasting peace with their king, he had, out of consideration to those princes, entered into a truce of five years by virtue of those letters (pointing to the letters with his finger). "Which truce," said he, "we shall observe as God will, and show our justice to our brother King Sigismund — on this condition, however, that the king give us letters corresponding in every respect, and written in the same tenor; and confirm them in the presence of our ambassadors; and do justice by us; and see that they be at length conveyed to us through our ambassadors. In the meantime you will also bind yourselves with an oath, that your king will perform and observe each and all of these articles." He then looked upon the cross, and signed himself three times with the sign of the cross, bowing his head each time so that his hands nearly touched the ground; then advancing nearer, and moving his lips as if in prayer, he wiped his mouth with the napkin, and spitting upon the ground he kissed the cross, and then first touched it with his forehead and afterwards with each eye; then receding, he again bowed his head and signed himself with the cross. After this he desired the Lithuanians to advance and do the same. Before the ambassadors did so, the one named Bohusch, who was of the Russian creed, repeated the formula by which they had bound themselves, and which was drawn up at great length, although containing little or nothing more than was contained in the sentence above given. Peter, the colleague of Bohusch, who was of the Roman Church, also repeated each word of it, and the prince's interpreter likewise translated it to us word for word. After the formula