Nothing could have been more attractive to Ivan III., and his nobles, than this alliance.  “God himself,” exclaimed a bishop, “must have conferred the gift.  She is a shoot from an imperial tree which formerly overspread all orthodox Christians.  This alliance will make Moscow another Constantinople, and will confer upon our sovereign the rights of the Grecian emperors.”

The grand prince, not deeming it decorous to appear too eager, and yet solicitous lest he might lose the prize, sent an embassador, with a numerous suite, to Rome, with a letter to the pope, and to report more particularly respecting the princess, not forgetting to bring him her portrait.  This embassage was speedily followed by another, authorized to complete the arrangements.  The embassadors were received with signal honors by Sextus IV., who had just succeeded Paul II., and at length it was solemnly announced, in a full conclave of cardinals, on the 22d of May, 1472, that the Russian prince wished to espouse Sophia.  Some of the cardinals objected to the orthodoxy of Ivan III.; but the pope replied that it was by condescension and kindness alone that they could hope to open the eyes of one spiritually blind; a sentiment which it is to be regretted that the court of Rome and also all other communions have too often ignored.

On the 1st of June the princess was sacredly affianced in the church of St. Peter’s to the prince of Moscow, the embassadors of Ivan III. assuring the pope of the zeal of their monarch for the happy reunion of the Greek and Latin churches.  The pope conferred a very rich dowry upon Sophia, and sent his legate to accompany her to Russia, attended by a splendid suite of the most illustrious Romans.  The affianced princess had a special court of her own, with its functionaries of every grade, and its established etiquette.  A large number of Greeks followed her to Moscow, hoping to find in that distant capital a second country.  Directions were given by the pope that, in every city through which she should pass, the princess should receive the honors due to her rank, and that, especially throughout Italy and Germany, she should be furnished with entertainment, relays of horses and guides, until she should arrive at the frontiers of Russia.

Sophia left Rome on the 24th of August, and after a rapid journey of six days, arrived, on the 1st of September, at Lubec, on the extreme southern shore of the Baltic.  Here she remained ten days, and on the 10th of September embarked in a ship expressly and gorgeously equipped for her accommodation.  A sail of eight hundred miles along the Baltic Sea, which occupied twenty days, conveyed the princess to Revel, near the mouth of the Gulf of Finland.  Arriving at this city on the 30th of September, she remained there for rest, ten days, during which time she was regaled with the utmost magnificence by the authorities of the place.  Couriers had been immediately dispatched, by the way of Novgorod, to Moscow, to