Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/198

186 186 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. In four days they returned to the camp, to beg for the general's answer, and his permission to depart ; but in vain. They reiterated their request, going every day for nine weeks, and remaining several hours exposed to the heat of the sun in the month of June, without the slightest notice being taken of them. No one even spoke to them, and their only food was black bread and a little water. Very often they were kept fasting till the evening, and then they received only some mares' or cows' milk. They were never offered a drop of wine, rice wine, or kumys ; but now and then a few drops of vinegar w r ere put into the water that was given to them. " The missionaries," says Friar Simon of St. Quentin, " were treated by the Tartars as miserable wretches — dogs, unworthy of an answer ; and it was thus that Baidjou manifested his resentment against them for having offended him by the frankness of their speech. He was, indeed, going in his anger to have them killed, and actually gave the order for it three times." At last the missionaries got their dismissal and the reply of Baidjou to the Pope. It was in these words : — " By the divine command of the Khan, the words of Baidjou are transmitted. " Know, Pope, that thy messengers have come and brought us letters. Thy messengers have spoken great words, and we do not know whether thou hast ordered them to do so, or whether they have done it of themselves. Thy letters bore, amongst others, these words : — ' You kill many people ; you massacre and you lay waste.' The immutable command of God, and the order of Him who rules the whole earth is this : ' Whosoever will obey us, let him remain in pos- session of his land, his water, his patrimony ; and let him give up his forces to the master of the universe; whosoever shall resist this order and command, let him be destroyed and annihilated.' We