Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/273

261 HOULAGOU AND NASSIR. 2G1 invasion, thought to retire, in order to save his own life and the lives of his brethren. This good monk, how- ever, entreated to be left behind as guardian of the con- vent and the church, adding, to overcome the unwill- ingness of the prior, that he was already old, and that if the Tartars should kill him, the death of one useless old man would be of little consequence to the Order. His perseverance at length triumphed, and when his brethren had departed, he employed himself in keeping up the courage of the faithful in the town, administering the sacrament to them, and enjoining them to receive fearlessly for the love of God, the death inflicted by the barbarians. When the brethren returned some days afterwards to the convent, they found the body of the holy old man prostrate before the high altar, pierced with many wounds, and bathed in blood, with the arms stretched, out in the form of a cross, and the brains scattered all about.* Whilst the Mongols were covering Poland with blood and ruins, Houlagou, in the East, was completing the conquest of Syria. After the capture of Bagdad he had entered Mesopotamia, seized on Merdin and Harran, passed the Euphrates, and made himself master of Aleppo and Damascus. The Tartar general had sent orders to Nassir, the Sultan of Aleppo, to submit at once, and come in person to meet him; but Nassir only sent his son Aziz — though with rich presents, and accompanied by many dignitaries of the court. When they were admitted to an audience, Houlagou demanded why their master had not come s 3
 * Fontana Monument, dom., ami. 1261.