CHAPTER XXVII

Departure from Breslau,-—Journey to Vienna.—Tafur is attacked by
the way.—Vienna.—The Empress Elizabeth.—Buda,—NeuSiadt.
—Duke Frederick of AuSlria,—The Carnic Alps,—Friuli,—
Treviso.—Padua.

I NOW asked the Emperor if it would please him to
give me licence to depart, as I desired to return to
Caftile since the King, my Mafter, was taking part
in person in the Moorish war, and those who were there
requefted him to commit me to the care of two of his
knights, who were travelling with an escort of 200
horsemen to Vienna. We accordingly departed from
Breslau and came with much labour and danger to the
Bohemian frontier. We now entered the Margravate
of Moravia which belonged to the Emperor Albert,
the Emperor Sigismund, his father-in-law, having
beftowed it upon him at the time of his marriage, and
we found many places wafted and burnt, which the
Bohemians had deftroyed. Thus we passed twelve
days until we arrived at Vienna, suffering much from
ice and froft, and in our route we passed over two
rivers which we crossed with our carts on the ice.
It was so cold that my teeth almoft fell out of my
mouth. Without doubt, it is a terrible business to
travel through such country in winter. Of the two
knights, my companions, one lived in a place belonging
to the present Emperor, and the other resided in
Vienna, having a house in commission from the
Emperor Albert some two leagues outside the city,
where he lived with his wife, and when we were two
leagues from the city they departed, each one to his
place. That one who lived in Vienna asked me to
spend some five or six days with him in his house, saying

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