doubt, but grotesque paladins
for the Cross. Men whispered their name with averted faces, and in the
eyes of the travelled ones there was the terror of sights remembered
outside the mortal pale. Aimery's heart was stout, but he brooded much
as the road climbed into the mountains. Far off in Cyprus the Khakan had
seemed a humble devotee at Christ's footstool, asking only to serve and
learn; but now he had grown to some monstrous Cyclops beyond the stature
of man, a portent like a thundercloud brooding over unnumbered miles.
Besides, the young lord was homesick, and had long thoughts of Alix his
wife and the son she had borne him. As he looked at the stony hills he
remembered that it would now be springtide in Picardy, when the young
green of the willows fringed every watercourse and the plovers were
calling on the windy downs.

The Constable of Armenia dwelt in a castle of hewn stone about which a
little city clustered, with mountains on every side to darken the sky,
He was as swarthy as a Saracen and had a long nose like a Jew, but he
was a good Christian and a wise ruler, though commonly at odds with his
cousin of Antioch. From him Aimery had more precise news of the Khakan.

There were two, said the Constable. "One who rules all Western Asia east
of the Sultan's principates. Him they call the Ilkhan for title, and
Houlagou for name. His armies have eaten up the Chorasmians and the
Muscovites and will presently bite their way into Christendom, unless
God change their heart. By the Gospels, they are less and more than men.
Swinish drinkers and gluttons, they rise from their orgies to sweep the
earth like a flame. Here inside our palisade of rock we wait fearfully."

"And the other?" Aimery asked.

"Ah, he is as much the greater as the sun is greater than a star. Kublai
they name him, and he is in some sort the lord of Houlagou. I have never
met the man who has seen him, for he dwells as far beyond the Ilkhan as
the Ilkhan is far from the Pillars of Hercules. But rumour has it that
he is a clement and beneficent prince, terrible in battle, but a lover
of peace and all good men. They tell wonders about his land of Cathay,
where strips of parchment stamped with the King's name take the place
of gold among the merchants, so strong is that King's honour. But the
journey to Cambaluc, the city of Kublai, would fill a man's lifetime."

One April morning they heard mass after the odd Syrian fashion, and
turned their faces ea