Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/166

154 154 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. tributary, was required to go to Kara-Koroum, to do homage to the Kha-kan. A proposal of this kind was one day made to the Emperor ', Frederick, in the name of the sovereign of the Tartars. He was re- quired to do homage for his states, and offered in re- compense whatever office he might choose at the court of the Khan. That was, according to Chinese notions, which were also prevalent with the Tartars, an honour- able offer, quite proportioned to the dignity of the first of Christian princes. Frederick took the offer jest- ingly, and said, that as he was pretty well acquainted with birds of prey, he thought he had better take the office of Falconer. * The divisions existing among the Christian princes of the West, and especially between the Pope and the Emperor, were certainly the cause of so little prepara- tions being made in Europe for defence against the barbarous hordes that descended from the plateau of Central Asia ; and the tremendous devastation that threatened them was probably only averted by the death of Ogotai, which obliged Batou and the other chiefs to return to Tartary, to take part in the election of a new sovereign. Had it not been for this fortunate cir- cumstance, it is probable that the superiority of the Mongols in the art of war would have subjected other nations to a fate as deplorable as that of the Russians, the Hungarians, and the Poles. Fatal experience had shown them, that troops composed of a small number of knights in heavy armour, and a multitude of half-naked peasants, — armies without order, subordination, unity erat falconarius.
 * Respondisse imperator fertao : quod satro scit de avibus et bene