Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/391

379 LETTER OF EDWAKD II. TO KIIARBENDE. 379 quite unknown what reception was given in France to the Tartar envoys ; as the letter which they left there is the only trace of their passage. No historian has spoken of it, and no copy has been preserved of the answer which the King of France must have given to the letter of Kharbende. The Tartar ambassadors went from France into England, where they arrived after the death of Edward L, that is, after the 7th July, 1307, nearly two years from the date of the letter of which they were the bearers. The answer of Edward II., dated from North- ampton, is expressed in these terms : — " We have admitted the messengers whom your High- ness has sent with letters to the prince Edward of glorious memory, lately King of England, our father, who before their arrival had ended his clays ; we have taken account of your letters, and of what your mes- sengers have reported from you, according to the credentials you have given them. " We render thanks to your Royal Magnificence for the good will and friendship which you and your ances- tors have manifested towards our father, and which you now testify to us, by the sending of your ambassadors, by the desire you show to see concord and affection increase between you and us, and, above all, by the remembrance you preserve of the friendship which ex- isted between your noble predecessors and our father, as is shown by the series of your letters ; as well as by other things you mention. " We rejoice in the Lord at the peace made amongst you, by the grace of God, from the boundaries of the East to the sea. " Further, as to what has been made known to you that peace and concord were reviving amongst us