n continued:

"I have thought about the further trip of your group and I shall arrange
everything for you, but I ask you to remain here these nine days."

What was I to do? I agreed. The Baron shook my hand warmly and ordered
tea.

CHAPTER XXXVI

A SON OF CRUSADERS AND PRIVATEERS

"Tell me about yourself and your trip," he urged. In response I related
all that I thought would interest him and he appeared quite excited over
my tale.

"Now I shall tell you about myself, who and what I am! My name is
surrounded with such hate and fear that no one can judge what is the
truth and what is false, what is history and what myth. Some time you
will write about it, remembering your trip through Mongolia and your
sojourn at the yurta of the 'bloody General.'"

He shut his eyes, smoking as he spoke, and tumbling out his sentences
without finishing them as though some one would prevent him from
phrasing them.

"The family of Ungern von Sternberg is an old family, a mixture of
Germans with Hungarians--Huns from the time of Attila. My warlike
ancestors took part in all the European struggles. They participated
in the Crusades and one Ungern was killed under the walls of Jerusalem,
fighting under Richard Coeur de Lion. Even the tragic Crusade of the
Children was marked by the death of Ralph Ungern, eleven years old.
When the boldest warriors of the country were despatched to the eastern
border of the German Empire against the Slavs in the twelfth century, my
ancestor Arthur was among them, Baron Halsa Ungern Sternberg. Here these
border knights formed the order of Monk Knights or Teutons, which
with fire and sword spread Christianity among the pagan Lithuanians,
Esthonians, Latvians and Slavs. Since then the Teuton Order of Knights
has always had among its members representatives of our family. When the
Teuton Order perished in the Grunwald under the swords of the Polish and
Lithuanian troops, two Barons Ungern von Sternberg were killed there.
Our family was warlike and given to mysticism and asceticism.

"During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries several Barons von
Ungern had their castles in the lands of Latvia and Esthonia. Many
legends and tales lived after them. Heinrich Ungern von Sternberg,
called 'Ax,' was a wandering knight. The tournaments of France, England,
Spain and Italy knew his name and lance, which filled the hearts of his
opponents with fear. He fell at Cadiz 'neath the sword of a knight who
cleft