Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/410

398 398 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. the steeple of the church. This sight immediately paralysed the impious courage by which he was ani- mated, and he cried out, " Can I so far betray my Saviour, who for love of me yielded himself to the most cruel sufferings?" The next day he again recom- mended himself to the prayers of his brethren, and con- jured them to watch over him, and to prevent him from ruining himself for ever. The superiors, affected by this mark of good feeling, and persuaded that flight alone could save the poor monk, resolved to send him into the convent of Caffa in the Crimea, hoping that the in- cidents of the journey and being surrounded by new brethren would drive away the illusions by which he was so cruelly pursued ; but it was too late. Stephen had deserted his monastery, and was hasten- ing towards Serai, in the pursuit of those felicities of which his maddened imagination had so passionately dreamed. Scarcely had he entered the city when he began to declaim against Christianity, and declared to the Mussulmans that he came to embrace the law of Mahomet. The Kadi was delighted at this news ; he received Stephen with every mark of respect and sym- pathy ; for he felt how important to Islainism would be the conversion of a Christian p*riest, the member of a religious order whose progress amongst the infidels of Tartary had been so striking, and whose learning equalled its virtues. The morrow was the day on which the Mussnlmans celebrate pompously one of their religious festivals ; and they eagerly took advantage of this great solemnity to display, in the sight of the whole city, the triumph of Mahomet. Stephen repaired to the mosque ; and there abjured Christianity, and made a public profession