wealth
in precious stones they brought with them soon freshened the memory of
their relatives, and they became the heroes of the city. Marco took part
in a war then raging with Genoa, was taken prisoner, and long lay in a
dungeon, where he dictated to a fellow-prisoner the story of his
adventures and the wonderful things he had seen in the dominions of the
Great Khan of Cathay. This was afterwards published as "Il Milione di
Messer Marco Polo Veneziano," and at once gained a high reputation,
which it has preserved from that day to this. Though long looked on by
many as pure fable, time has proved its essential truth, and it is now
regarded as the most valuable geographical work of the Middle Ages.

We cannot undertake to give the diffuse narrative of Marco Polo's book,
but a condensed account of a few of his statements may prove of
interest, as showing some of the conditions of China in this middle
period of its existence. His description of the great palace of Kublai,
near his capital city of Kambalu, much the largest royal residence in
the world, is of sufficient interest to be given in epitome. The palace
grounds included a great park, enclosed by a wall and ditch eight miles
square, with an entrance gate midway of each side. Within this great
enclosure of sixty-four square miles was an open space a mile broad, in
which the troops were stationed, it being bounded on the interior by a
second wall six miles square. This space, twenty-eight square miles in
area, held an army of more than a hundred thousand men, nearly all
cavalry.

Within the second wall lay the royal arsenals and the deer-park, with
meadows and handsome groves, and in the interior rose a third wall of
great thickness, each side of which was a mile in length, while its
height was twenty-five feet. This last enclosure, one square mile in
area, contained the palace, which reached from the northern to the
southern wall and included a spacious court. Though its roof was very
lofty, it was but one story in height, standing on a paved platform of
several feet elevation, from which extended a marble terrace seven feet
wide, surrounded by a handsome balustrade, which the people were allowed
to approach.

Carved and gilt dragons, figures of warriors and animals, and
battle-scenes ornamented the sides of the great hall and the
apartments, while the roof was so contrived that only gilding and
painting were to be seen. On each side of the palace a grand flight o