Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/348

336 upon returning to the East, and taking Marco the son of Nicolo Polo with them. They set out first for Jerusalem, in order to obtain, in accordance with the directions Kublai had given them, a portion of the oil burning before the Holy Sepulchre, and then proceeded again to Acre to see the legate apostolic, who approved of their determination, and gave them letters to the khan, explaining that the vacancy of the Holy See had caused their delay.

They had just commenced their journey, and were proceeding by easy stages, when they were once more stopped by receiving from an estafette, the information that the legate apostolic of Egypt himself had been called to the pontifical throne, which he had ascended under the name of Gregory X. He desired the Venetian ambassadors to proceed to Lyons, were he was going to call a general council, and on their joyfully repairing thither, he received them with affection, overwhelmed them with honours, and attached to their embassy two monks of the order of St. Dominic, William of Tripoli, and Nicholas de Vicenza.

Just at the period when the embassy entered Armenia, the Bibar troops had invaded the country, and spread murder and desolation throughout it. The two Dominican missionaries who had, several times during their journey, almost sunk beneath the fatigue they had to endure, were now reduced to such a state of exhaustion, that they thought it impossible to proceed further; and as they felt convinced that they would be unable to pass safely through a country infested by