276 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



at Padua, and spent afterwards some years in a foreign military service. 

 They generally made choice of Spain, as a country at that time deemed 

 to be the most perfect school for all the accomplishments befitting a 

 nobleman. Latin being the official language of the country, was spoken 

 by all classes, and a knowledge of the German, Italian, and Spanish 

 languages was very general. At the Court, Queen Bona rendered the 

 two last particularly fashionable. 



These are - scraps of information which we have principally derived 

 from various portions of the work in question, and which we would feign 

 hope will neither be considered dull nor misplaced. We will now pro- 

 ceed to give a short extract from this very amusing history. It will be 

 necessary to the elucidation of our extract, however, to observe that the 

 King of Poland, Sigismund Augustus, made a promise to Kmita, the 

 Palatine of Cracow, to celebrate at his castle the formal betrothal of his 

 royal cousin, Helena Odrowonz, to the high-born Hippolyte Boratynski, 

 Starost of Samborz. 



" The sun rose beautifully on the day which was destined to assemble the Court 

 at Wisnietz ; and when the invited guests were crossing the wooden bridge that led 

 over the Vistula from Cracow to the suburb Podgorze, the river and the adjacent 

 landscape shone with all the beauty of a fine summer morning. The party had 

 started at an early hour ; at that period the usual time for dinner was eleven in the 

 morning, and as the solemn signature of Helena's marriage settlement was to take 

 place between that repast and the festivities of the evening, it was desirable that 

 the dinner should not be later than at the usual hour. The most prominent object 

 of the train was a large open carriage, drawn by eight horses, adorned with velvet 

 trappings and plumes of feathers. This ponderous machine much resembled a 

 waggon of our times : it was without any cover, and had doors on both sides. 

 There were four high-backed seats inside, two and two opposite to each other ; 

 they were suspended on leather straps, but the wooden part of them was richly 

 gilt, the hand-cushions were covered with blue velvet bordered with crimson, and 

 the Polish eagle embroidered in silver on each. Over the seats of honour in the 

 back of the carriage was placed, on four iron posts, a kind of canopy ; it was of a 

 square, simple, and rather clumsy form, covered with crimson velvet, and adorned 

 on the top with a richly gilt crown. The curtains of gilt leather which surrounded 

 this kind of cage, were drawn back, and the curiosity of the spectators was fully 

 gratified by the sight of the Queens Barbara and Bona, the first of them in a rich 

 court-dress, and the second in a widow's dark costume ; both, however, equally 

 wearing on the top of their head-dresses a little diadem. The two opposite seats 

 were occupied by the Princess of Mazovia, who was entitled by her high birth to 

 such a distinction, and by her daughter, who was the chief object of this day's 

 festivity : the mother in a deep mourning dress, and without any jewels ; the 

 daughter adorned with all the charms of youth and beauty, though deprived of 

 every glittering ornament, because the broken Byzantian chain was locked up in 

 the Princess's casket. Besides these four seats of honour there were in the car- 

 riage two small benches ; that on the right side was occupied by the ladies of the 

 reigning Queen, that of the left by the starostine Falczeska, and one of Queen 

 Bona's maids of honour. Helena abandoned herself entirely to the sweet reveries 

 of futurity, casting now and then a hasty look on the Starost of Samborz, or else 

 answering with a smile a kind or jesting speech of the King, who frequently rode 

 up to the carriage. Outside on the steps were placed six pages, and amongst them 

 Stanislaw Lacki. Many senators and high dignitaries of the state accompanied 

 the King, and the splendid cavalcade was closed by a company of the royal horse- 

 guards under the command of the Starost of Samborz." 



********* 



" The clock over the portal struck eleven, the trumpets sounded the signal for 

 the commencement of the dinner, and the rustling of ladies' silks and the clattering 

 of spurs and swords, announced the arrival of the distinguished company at the 

 banqueting-hall. The pages flew quickly to place themselves behind the chairs of 

 their respective masters or mistresses, and among them Stanislaw Lacki, who, 

 seizing hold of the two flasks committed to his care, occupied a place behind the 

 gilt arm-chair prepared for the reigning Queen at the upper end of the table." 



'' The company entered the banqueting-hall, preceded by the seneschal of Kmita's 



