Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/179

167 ARRIVAL AT THE IMPERIAL HORDE. 167 attacks, that need not give you audacity to pursue your cruelties any farther. God sometimes omits for a time to chastise the proud; but if they neglect to humble themselves, he never fails to punish their iniquities even in this world, reserving to himself a more complete ven- geance in that which is to come." Innocent concluded this letter by pronouncing a panegyric on Friar John and his companions, begging the Tartars to receive them well, furnish them with provisions, and with an escort on their return. He then, simply enough, begs them to tell him in their answer, what can have induced them to destroy other nations, and what are their projects for the future.* Some days after the delivery of these letters which were translated into the Mongol, Russian, and Arabic languages, Batou sent off the friars to the Yellow Horde. They set out on Easter day, accompanied by two Tartars, who had orders to make them travel very fast, though these intrepid missionaries were so weak that they could hardly keep themselves on their horses, and were obliged to get their eyes bandaged up (a pre- caution frequently adopted by travellers in these re- gions, to relieve the pain occasioned by hard gallop- ing) ; they finally arrived at the imperial residence on the 22nd of July, about five months after their en- trance on the Mongol territory near the Dnieper. When the envoys of the Holy See arrived at the Im- perial Horde, they found that the Khan Ogotai was dead ; that his widow Tourakina was invested with the regency till the election of his successor, and that she ulterius intenclatis, per easdem fratres plenarae intimetis." — Odor Ray- nald, Ann. 1245. No. 18. p. 540. m 4
 * " Quid vos ad gentium exteraiinium moverit aliarum et quid