du did Kublai Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree,
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sacred sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground,
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery."

So the three Venetians abode at the Court of the Chinese Emperor for
no less than seventeen years. Young Marco displayed so great
intelligence that he was sent on a mission for the Khan some six months'
journey distant; and so well did he describe the things he had seen
and the lands through which he had passed, that the Khan heaped on
him honours and riches. Let us hear what Marco says of his lord and
master.

[Illustration: KUBLAI KHAN. From an old Chinese Encyclopaedia at
Paris.]

"The Great Khan, lord of lords, named Kublai, is of middle stature,
neither too full nor too short: he has a beautiful fresh complexion,
his colour is fair, his eyes dark."

The capital of the Empire, Pekin, two days' journey from the sea, and
the residence of the Court during the months of December, January,
and February, called out the unbounded enthusiasm of the Polos. The
city, two days' journey from the ocean, in the extreme north-east of
Cathay, had been newly rebuilt in a regular square, six miles on each
side, surrounded by walls of earth and having twelve gates.

"The streets are so broad and so straight," says Marco, "that from
one gate another is visible. It contains many beautiful houses and
palaces, and a very large one in the midst, containing a steeple with
a large bell which at night sounds three times, after which no man
must leave the city. At each gate a thousand men keep guard, not from
dread of any enemy, but in reverence of the monarch who dwells within
it, and to prevent injury by robbers."

This square form of Pekin, the great breadth of the straight streets,
the closing of the gates by sound of a bell--the largest in the
world--is noted by all travellers to this far-eastern city of Cathay.

But greater even than Pekin was the city of Kin-sai (Hang-tcheou-fou),
the City of Heaven, in the south of China. It had but lately fallen
into the hands of Kublai Khan.

"And now I will tell you all its nobleness," says Marco, "for without
doubt it is the largest city in the world. T