nestly all their money
and other treasures; and if any of them refused to do this, or to tell
where their treasures were hid, he would put them to the torture, and
compel them to tell.

The wretched inhabitants of the town, feeling that they were entirely
at the mercy of the terrible hordes that were in possession of the
city, did not attempt to conceal any thing. They brought forward their
hidden treasures, and even offered their household goods to the
conqueror if he was disposed to take them. They were only anxious to
save, if possible, their dwellings and their lives. Genghis Khan
appeared at first to be pleased with the submissive spirit which they
manifested, but at last, under pretense that he heard of some soldiers
being concealed somewhere, and perhaps irritated at the citadel's
holding out so long against him, he ordered the town to be set on
fire. The buildings were almost all of wood, and the fire raged among
them with great fury. Multitudes of the inhabitants perished in the
flames, and great numbers died miserably afterward from want and
exposure. The citadel immediately afterward surrendered, and it would
seem that Genghis Khan began to feel satisfied with the amount of
misery which he had caused, for it is said that he spared the lives of
the governor and of the soldiers, although we might have expected that
he would have massacred them all.

The citadel was, however, demolished, and thus the town itself, and
all that pertained to it, became a mass of smoking ruins. The property
pillaged from the inhabitants was divided among the Mongul troops,
while the people themselves went away, to roam as vagabonds and
beggars over the surrounding country, and to die of want and despair.

What difference is there between such a conqueror as this and the
captain of a band of pirates or of robbers, except in the immense
magnitude of the scale on which he perpetrates his crimes?

The satisfaction which Genghis Khan felt at the capture of Bokhara was
greatly increased by the intelligence which he received soon afterward
from the two princes whom he had sent to lay siege to Otrar, informing
him that that city had fallen into their hands, and that the governor
of it, the officer who had so treacherously put to death the
embassadors and the merchants, had been taken and slain. The name of
this governor was Gayer Khan. The sultan, knowing that Genghis Khan
would doubtless make this city one of his first objects of attac