by the orders of
the Grand Khan, was first given to the right and left wings; and then
a fierce and bloody conflict began. The air was instantly filled with
a cloud of arrows that poured down on every side, and vast numbers of
men and horses were seen to fall to the ground.

The loud cries and shouts of the men, together with the noise of the
horses and the weapons, were such as to inspire terror in those who
heard them. When their arrows had been discharged, the hostile parties
engaged in close combat with their lances, swords, and maces shod with
iron; and such was the slaughter, and so large were the heaps of the
carcasses of men, and more especially of horses, on the field, that it
became impossible for the one party to advance upon the other. Thus
the fortune of the day remained for a long time undecided, and victory
wavered between the contending parties from morning until noon; for so
zealous was the devotion of Nayan's people to the cause of their
master, who was most liberal and indulgent toward them, that they were
all ready to meet death rather than turn their backs to the enemy. At
length, however, Nayan, perceiving that he was nearly surrounded,
attempted to save himself by flight, but was presently made prisoner,
and conducted to the presence of Kublai, who gave orders for his being
put to death. This was carried into execution by enclosing him between
two carpets, which were violently shaken until the spirit had departed
from the body; the motive for this peculiar sentence being that the
sun and the air should not witness the shedding of the blood of one
who belonged to the imperial family. Those of his troops which
survived the battle came to make their submission and swear allegiance
to Kublai.

Nayan, who had privately undergone the ceremony of baptism, but never
made open profession of Christianity, thought proper, on this
occasion, to bear the sign of the cross in his banners, and he had in
his army a vast number of Christians, who were among the slain. When
the Jews and the Saracens perceived that the banner of the cross was
overthrown, they taunted the Christian inhabitants with it, saying:
"Behold the state to which your (vaunted) banners, and those who
followed them, are reduced!" On account of these derisions the
Christians were compelled to lay their complaints before the Grand
Khan, who ordered the former to appear before him, and sharply rebuked
them. "If the cross of Christ," he said, "ha