Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/415

EMBASSY FROM PEKIN. 403 weapons, cut him down and tore him to pieces. Such was the triumph gained by this missionary by his un- fortunate fall! The Evil Spirit had been able for a time to transform the disciple of St. Francis into a slave of Mahomet ; but the greater power of God had enabled the renegade to see his error, and become again a confessor of Jesus Christ, a penitent and a glorious martyr. In 1335, a year after this memorable event, which had caused the most lively emotion among the Chris- tians of the capital of Kiptchak, came news of the death of Abou-Sa'id, the sovereign of the empire founded by the Mongols in Persia. He was the last of the Tartar khans who exercised imperial power in the western countries of Asia, and he left only one son, whom the chiefs of the horde refused to acknowledge; but went to war among themselves, and endeavoured to destroy each other. The states founded by the descendants of Tchinguiz- Khan were for a long time a prey to the ravages of in- testine warfare, and a throng of petty sovereigns were disputing by turns the ruins of this vast empire, when the famous Tamerlane, with his victorious armies, put an end to the strife by seizing on all the countries in dispute. Whilst the Tartar princes of Persia were thus struggling to effect their reciprocal ruin, the emperor of the Oriental Mongols, who reigned in Cathay, sent an embass}^ to the sovereign pontiff. At this epoch the preaching of the gospel had made immense progress, both within the limits of China, and beyond the great wall ; and the numerous Christians spread over those vast countries were continually receiving marks of fa- vour from the emperor and the grand dignitaries of the D D 2