The Muscovite, with no less pomp and magnificence than that which we have
spoken of, sends his ambassadors to foreign princes in the affairs of
estate. For while our men were abiding in the city of Moscow, there were
two ambassadors sent to the King of Poland, accompanied with 500 notable
horse; and the greater part of the men were arrayed in cloth of gold and
of silk, and the worst apparel was of garments of a blue colour, to speak
nothing of the trappings of the horses, which were adorned with gold and
silver, and very curiously embroidered; they had also with them one
hundred white and fair spare horses, to use them at such times as any
weariness came upon them. But now the time requireth me to speak briefly
of other cities of the Muscovites, and of the wares and commodities that
the country yieldeth.