caliph to surrender. He
said he would pay tribute, but he could not surrender his authority to
them because he was the spiritual head of Islam."

Simon heard murmurs of derision at this, but David ignored them and,
speaking through Ugolini, went on.

"Over a hundred thousand Tartars surrounded Baghdad, and their siege
machines began smashing its walls with great rocks brought down from the
mountains by slave caravans. Soon their standards, which are made of the
horns and hides and tails of beasts, were raised over the southeastern
wall from the Racecourse Gate to the Persian Tower. The city was lost.
The Tartars promised to spare the remaining troops if they would
surrender. The soldiers of Baghdad went out, unarmed, and the Tartars
killed them all with arrows. This is the Tartars' notion of honor."

"They will do the same to us!" shouted a cardinal. The pope slapped his
palm loudly on the arm of his chair, and silence settled again.

"Hulagu Khan, the commander of the Tartar army, now entered the city and
made the caliph serve him a splendid dinner. After dinner the khan
demanded that the caliph show him all the jewels and gold and silver and
other treasures that had been gathered by the caliphs of Baghdad over
the centuries. Hulagu promised to let the caliph live, together with a
hundred of his women."

This brought a loud cackle from under one of the red hats in the front
row.

"Only a hundred women!" a voice followed the laughter. "Poor caliph! How
many was he wont to have?"

"Seeing how ugly those Saracens' women are, I would think one wife too
many," another prelate called out.

Irritated, Simon wished he could silence them all. This was too serious
a matter for such unseemly jokes.

The ribald jests continued, to Simon's annoyance, until Fra Tomasso
rang his bell. Then David, looking grimmer than ever, spoke to Ugolini,
and Ugolini began to address the assembly.

"Next the Tartars commanded all the people of Baghdad to herd out onto
the plain outside the city, telling them that they would be made to
leave the city only while the Tartars searched it for valuables.

"When they had the people at their mercy they separated them into three
groups, men, women, and children. When families are broken up, the
members do not fight as hard to survive. The Tartars slaughtered them
with swords and arrows. Two hundred thousand men, women, and children
they killed that day, after promising them they would not be ha