Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/306

294 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. Far, too, from continuing the negotiation for an alliance with the Christian powers, which Abaga had opened, he desired to form one with the Snltan of Egypt, and he hastened to send thither the Kadi of Sebaste, to an- nounce his conversion to Mahometanism, offer his friendship to the Sultan, and undertake to propagate everywhere the faith that he had just embraced. This prince, therefore, who, but a short time before had been counted on as the warm friend of the Christians, had now become a pitiless tyrant to them, and was possessed by so fanatical a zeal for the law of Mahomet, that he en- deavoured to extirpate the very name of Christianity. The punishment of exile or death was proclaimed as the penalty of worshipping Jesus Christ ; and during these persecutions a great number of the Franciscans perished in dreadful tortures.* The conduct of the apostate Ahmed naturally excited the indignation and hatred of all the Christians and their numerous friends, and awakened no pity or sym- pathy in the Mussulmans. The Sultan of Egypt re- ceived the envoys of the new convert with much distrust, and when they arrived at Biroh, he sent orders to his lieutenants to watch them closely, so that no one of the people of God might have access to or converse with them. They were brought into Aleppo secretly, in the night, and afterwards taken to Damascus and Cairo in the same stealthy manner. They were then presented to the Sultan, kissed the ground before him, delivered their letter, and said what they had been ordered to say. The letter was written in Arabic, and had thirteen seals; its superscription was in an unaccustomed form, running thus: — " See Wadding, vol. v. p. 128.