Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/232

 220 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. Knights Templars, who had been in Cyprus, and had told of all that he had seen there." Bergeron doubtless alludes to this when he says, in his preface to the Narrative of Journeys in Tartary, " That which, in these travels of the old monks, is much to be remarked to the honour and glory of France, is that the Tartars, who had rendered themselves so formidable to all the nations of the earth, did not dread any people so much as our French ; " and we may see, in many parts of these narratives, the esteem in which they were held by the Tartars, and what a high notion they had of their military discipline, which they said they wished to learn. This is to be attributed to the reputation the French had of being the best men-at-arms, and the most adroit and chivalrous knights in the world ; as even the great Frederic Barbarossa bears witness, in that famous song which he composed in the Provencal language, to the praise of all the nations of Europe, and which was then in vogue through all Christendom, be- ginning thus : — " Plas mi cavalier Francez," &c. The rumour had gained credit, even in the East, that Sartak had become a Christian, but Rubruk was told not to make use of that expression, for that Sartak was not a Christian, but a Mongol. It seemed, therefore, that Christian was mistaken for a national designation, an error rather disconcerting to the missionaries, after all they had been thinking on the subject of Sartak's conversion. Sartak certainly had with him, however, some Nestorian priests, who celebrated Christian rites according to the particular tenets of their sect. He had desired, that when the Franciscans were admitted