had, as
he supposed, taken shelter there. Samarcand was the capital of the
country, and was then, as it has been since, a great and renowned
city.

Besides the sultan himself, whom Genghis Khan was pursuing, there were
the ladies of his family whom he wished also to capture. The two
principal ladies were the sultana and the queen-mother. The
queen-mother was a lady of very great distinction. She had been
greatly renowned during the lifetime of her husband, the former
sultan, for her learning, her piety, the kindness of her heart, and
the general excellence of her character, so far as her dealings with
her subjects and friends were concerned, and her influence throughout
the realm had been unbounded. At some periods of her life she had
exercised a great deal of political power, and at one time she bore
the very grand title of _Protectress of the faith of the world_. She
exercised the power which she then possessed, in the main, in a very
wise and beneficial manner. She administered justice impartially. She
protected the weak, and restrained the oppressions of the strong. She
listened to all the cases which were brought before her with great
attention and patience, and arrived almost always at just conclusions
respecting them. With all this, however, she was very strict and
severe, and, as has almost always been the case with women raised to
the possession of irresponsible power, she was unrelenting and cruel
in the extreme whenever, as she judged, any political necessity
required her to act with decision. Her name was Khatun.[E]

[Footnote E: Pronounced _Cah-toon_.]

Khatun was not now at Samarcand. She was at Karazm, a city which was
the chief residence of the court. She had been living there in
retirement ever since the death of her husband, the present sultan's
father.

Samarcand itself, as has already been said, was a great and splendid
city. Like most of the other cities, it was inclosed in a double wall,
though, in this case, the outer wall surrounded the whole city, while
the inner one inclosed the mosque, the palace of the sultan, and some
other public buildings. These walls were much better built and more
strongly fortified than those of Bokhara. There were twelve iron
gates, it is said, in the outer wall. These gates were a league apart
from each other. At every two leagues along the wall was a fort
capable of containing a large body of men. The walls were likewise
strengthened with battlements and towers