s family, the imperial German house of Hohenstaufen, had been at
war with the popes for generations, and Manfred had among his subjects
many Sicilian Muslims. Manfred agreed to help Daoud. But to protect his
own interests Manfred insisted that Daoud take with him Lorenzo Celino,
a middle-aged Sicilian warrior, and Sophia Karaiannides, a beautiful
Byzantine woman. Lorenzo brought along his huge, formidable dog, Scipio.
Journeying northward, the three rescued Rachel, a Jewish girl, from
tavern ruffians. Daoud agreed, with misgivings, to let her travel with
them.

The pope, threatened by political violence in Rome, had moved his
residence to Orvieto, a strongly walled town built on a huge flat-topped
rock. Here, Cardinal Adelberto Ugolini, a Sicilian churchman who had
long been secretly sending information to Baibars, was horrified to find
Baibars's agent on his doorstep expecting hospitality. But the cardinal
reluctantly agreed to help.

Hulagu Khan's ambassadors to the pope, Christianized Tartars named John
Chagan and Philip Uzbek, arrived in Orvieto two weeks after Daoud. A
young French nobleman, Count Simon de Gobignon, commanded their military
escort. Daoud had arranged for garbage-throwing hecklers to mar the
ambassadors' procession. The arrogant Cardinal Paulus de Verceuil,
accompanying the Tartars, was hit by excrement. He ordered the hired
Venetian crossbowmen to fire into the crowd, killing two innocent
bystanders.

Calling himself David of Trebizond, a merchant from the eastern shore of
the Black Sea, Daoud appeared publicly for the first time at a council
of Church leaders called by Pope Urban. He spoke from firsthand
knowledge of the horrors committed by the Tartars. But Friar Mathieu
d'Alcon, the Tartars' interpreter, testified that in his opinion the
Tartar empire was no longer a danger to Europe.

The Tartar ambassadors and their entourage were guests at the palace of
Orvieto's most powerful family, the Monaldeschi. When Contessa Elvira di
Monaldeschi gave a reception for the emissaries, Daoud drew them into
drunken gloating over their atrocities and boasting of their plans for
world conquest. Pope Urban and many other Church dignitaries were
appalled listeners.

With Ugolini's help, Daoud was able to persuade the influential
Dominican philosopher Fra Tomasso d'Aquino to write and preach against
the alliance. But then, subjected to unknown pressures, Fra Tomasso
suddenly changed his position.

Daoud