Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/318

306 306 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. to comply with this custom, but that seeing they would do nothing of the sort, he admitted them never- theless into his presence, and gave them a good reception ; that, however, Argoun besought the King of France that, in future, he should send ambassadors whom he would command to do him such reverence and honour as was the custom of his court." This circumstance is worthy of notice, and shows how far the sentiments of the Mongols were modified with respect to Christian princes. It is well known how bar- barously they had formerly treated foreign ambassadors, sometimes threatening them to flay them alive, and stuff them with straw; we have seen too the furious and insolent missives which they addressed to the sove- reigns of Asia and Europe, citing them, on pain of utter destruction, to submit immediately to their rule ; but a few years had sufficed to change the character of their intercourse with Christians. The French envoys who visited the Khan of Tartary in 1288, absolutely refused to salute that prince by prostrating themselves before him, as Mongol etiquette required. " They would have failed," they said, " in what they owed to themselves, by rendering such homage to a king who was not a Christian." The Mongol prince not only endured this refusal without an^er, but even wrote to the King of France, " that if his ambassadors had received orders to act thus, he was perfectly satisfied ; for that what was pleasing to that monarch, pleased him also." This lan- guage is a strong proof of the influence of the French name at the Mongol court. Historians have left us quite ignorant of the effect of the negotiation of Buskarello, and of the projects to which it might have given rise for the future ; but it is