s known, the area of whose conquests vastly
exceeded those of Caesar and Napoleon, and added to the empire won by
Alexander a still greater dominion in the north. The Chinese said of him
that "he led his armies like a god;" and in truth as a military genius
he has had no superior in the history of the world. The sphere of no
other conqueror ever embraced so vast a realm, and the wave of warfare
which he set in motion did not come to rest until it had covered nearly
the whole of Asia and the eastern half of the European continent.
Beginning as chief of the fragment of a tribe, he ended as lord of
nearly half the civilized world, and dozens of depopulated cities told
the story of his terrible career. He had swept over the earth like a
tornado of blood and death.

_HOW THE FRIARS FARED AMONG THE TARTARS._

The sea of Mongol invasion which, pouring in the thirteenth century from
the vast steppes of Asia, overflowed all Eastern Europe, and was checked
in its course only by the assembled forces of the German nations, filled
the world of the West with inexpressible terror. For a time, after
whelming beneath its flood Russia, Poland, and Hungary, it was rolled
back, but the terror remained. At any moment these savage horsemen might
return in irresistible strength and spread the area of desolation to the
western seas. The power of arms seemed too feeble to stay them; the
power of persuasion, however, might not be in vain, and the pope, as the
spiritual head of Europe, felt called upon to make an effort for the
rescue of the Christian world.

Tartar hordes were then advancing through Persia towards the Holy Land,
and to these, in the forlorn hope of checking their course, he sent as
ambassadors a body of Franciscan friars composed of Father Ascelin and
three companions. It was in the year 1246 that these papal envoys set
out, armed with full powers from the head of the Church, but sadly
deficient in the worldly wisdom necessary to deal with such truculent
infidels as those whom they had been sent to meet.

Ascelin and his comrades journeyed far through Asia in search of a
Tartar host, and at length found one on the northern frontier of Persia.
Into the camp of the barbarians the worthy Franciscan boldly advanced,
announcing himself as an ambassador from the pope. To his surprise, this
announcement was received with contempt by the Tartars, who knew little
and cared less for the object of his deep veneration. In return