rmed."

Simon tried to imagine the butchering of those hundreds of thousands of
people. He had never seen any Saracens, and so the victims in his mind's
eye tended to resemble the people of Paris. He shuddered inwardly as he
pictured those countless murders.

"The Tartars now entered the city whose people were all dead, and sacked
and burned it. It had been such a great city that it took them seven
days to reduce it to ruins."

Simon's heart turned to ice.

_What if it were Paris? Could we fight any harder for Paris than the
Saracens did for Baghdad?_

_Ex Tartari furiosi._

"They have a superstition that it is bad luck to shed the blood of royal
personages. So they took the caliph and his three royal sons, who had
seen their city destroyed and all their people killed, tied them in
sacks, and rode their horses over them, trampling them to death."

"These deeds of the Tartars smell sweet in the nostrils of the Lord!"
shouted Cardinal de Verceuil. There were cries of approval.

Without waiting for David to say more, Ugolini replied to de Verceuil.
"Yes, Baghdad was the seat of a false religion. But it was also a city
of philosophers, mathematicians, historians, poets, of colleges,
hospitals, of wealth, of science, of art. And of two hundred thousand
souls, as David has told us. Muslim souls, but souls nevertheless. Now
_it does not exist_. And whoever thinks that the Tartars will do such
things only to Saracen cities is a fool."

Simon hated to admit it, but Ugolini's words made perfect sense to him.

"They will do it everywhere!" cried someone in the audience.

Now David said through Ugolini, "What is more, the Tartars who rule in
Russia have converted to Islam. They still dream of the conquest of
Europe and may return to the attack at any time. Perhaps while your
armies are occupied in Egypt or Syria."

Fra Tomasso raised his quill for attention. "How would you describe the
character of the Tartars, Master David? What sort of men are they?"

David answered and then looked about with his bright, compelling gaze
while Ugolini translated. "I have lived among the Tartars and traveled
with them. The Tartar is unmoved by his own pain or by that of his
fellows. The suffering of other people merely amuses him. His word given
to a foreigner means nothing to him. He thinks his own race superior to
all other peoples on earth."

Fra Tomasso said, "What you have told us has been most enlightening,
Master David, beca