Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/175

himself and Bona, the daughter of Giovanni Galeazzo Sforza, was contracted and solemnized.

There were there in close confinement three Russian generals, to whom, in the battle of Orsa in the year 1514, the chief command of the Russian army had been intrusted. By the king's permission I was allowed to pay my respects to them, and consoled them to the best of my ability.

Vilna, the capital of the grand duchy of Lithuania, stands at the point where the rivers Velia and Vilna meet; they flow into the Nemen or Cronon. I left Chrysostom Columna [Colonna?] there, and did not stay there any length of time.

I left Vilna on the 14th of March, but not by the public and usual road into Russia (one of which is by Smolensko, and the other by Livonia); but taking the road which lies between these two, four miles brought me to Nementschin, and eight miles further to Svintrawa, crossing the river Schamena.

On the following day to Disla, six miles, where is a lake bearing the same name; and four miles to Drismet, where the Russian ambassador, whom I had left at Grodno, returned to me.

Four miles to Braslaw, on the lake Nawer, which is a mile in length.

After five miles, we reached Dedina, and the river Dwina, which the Livonians, whose territory it runs through, call Duna. Some call it Turantum.

Seven miles thence to Drissa; and hastening on, we again came to the river Dwina, at the town of Betha; and as the river was frozen over, we were carried sixteen miles up it in sledges, after the fashion of these people, and then we came upon a point where two high roads met. While we were doubting which one we should take, I sent a servant into a peasant's house which stood on the bank to inquire; but as the ice was fast melting under the noonday sun, the messen-