Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/265

253 END OF THE CALIPHATE. 253 he was victorious, the Tartar summoned Caliph Mos- tassim to surrender. " Avoid war," said the conqueror, " and do not strike your fist upon the pricker, or take the sun for a lamp, or it will be worse for you. If you rase the walls, and fill up the ditches of Bagdad, and present yourself to us in person, we may not chastise you ; but if in our wrath we attack Bagdad, you will not escape, not though you should hide yourself in the bowels of the earth. If, then, you desire your own safety, and that of your house, lend an ear to my counsels ; if you do not, we shall see what is the will of God." The Caliph replied to this summons : " Young man, who, seduced by ten days' good fortune, imagine your- self master of the world, and dream that your commands are irresistible, like those of fate — ■ what audacity is this, to ask of me what you will never obtain ? Do you not know, that from the East unto the West, all who adore God and profess the true faith are my servants ? Follow, then, the way of peace and prudence, and return to Khorassan." * While the Tartar envoys were bringing back this haughty answer to their master, they were assailed by the populace of Bagdad, who overwhelmed them with abuse, spat on their faces, tore their clothes, and would have massacred them, but that some guards, sent in haste by the vizier, snatched them from the hands of the Mussulmans. On hearing of this outrage, Houlagou exclaimed, " The behaviour of the Caliph is more crooked than this bow ; but so God help me, I will make it as straight as this arrow.
 * D'Ohsson's "Hist, of Mongols," vol. iii. p. 217.