On The 27th Of
June The King Gave Us Our Final Audience, At Which He Gave Us Presents
For Our
Respective sovereigns; that is to say, to the patriarch for the
Duke of Burgundy; to myself for the republic; and
To one Marcus Ruffus,
who had come with an embassy from the prince of Muscovy. The presents
consisted in certain pieces of workmanship made in the European fashion,
two swords, and certain ornaments for the head, which are usually
fastened to bonnets. There were two Persian ambassadors in the audience-
chamber, one of whom was destined on a mission into Russia. At length the
king turning towards the patriarch and me, addressed us nearly as follows:
"You will return with all speed to your masters, and will tell them and
all the other Christian princes from me, that I have used all diligence
in taking the field to make war on the Turks, as it had been concerted
between them and me. The emperor of the Turks is at present in
Constantinople, and will make no enterprize of importance this year. As
for myself, I propose sending one part of my army to reduce my rebellious
son, and another against the Turkish generals, while I shall remain here
at hand, to act against the enemy as occasion may require." He gave
orders, both to us and to his own ambassadors, to report this to all the
princes of Christendom. I did not receive these orders with more
satisfaction than I had done the former; but I had no means of escape and
must necessarily obey. Wherefore, having taken our leaves, we prepared
for our departure, and were unexpectedly commanded to remain till next
day. In the mean time, he conveyed a great part of his infantry during
the night to the other side of a mountain. Next morning early, the
_Ruiscasson_, or conductor of ambassadors, carried us to the top of the
hill, as meaning to confer with us on some important subject, and on the
appearance of the Persian infantry under march, he pointed them out to us
as if he had been surprised at seeing so many additional troops coming to
the royal camp. The better to favour this deception, some of his slaves
exclaimed as astonished, that there were a great many soldiers, and that
at least 10,000 were coming to reinforce the army. But we easily saw
through the contrivance, and were certain that these pretended new troops
were merely the ordinary royal escort, which had only changed their
position to impose upon us. After this little comedy, the _Ruiscasson_
gave us the royal letters for our masters, and we returned to our tents.
From the information of M. Josaphat and others, the military force of
this king cannot exceed 20,000 cavalry, some of whom have wooden bucklers
about eighteen inches long. Others have a kind of cuirasses made of very
thin plates of steel, which they wear over their ordinary habits. Their
usual arms are bows and arrows, and cimeters, while some have small
leathern targets covered with silk, and others carry helmets and
cuirasses.
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