explaining to them the ten commandments, the seven
deadly sins, and other matters, exhorting them to confession and penitence:
But all of them publickly excused themselves respecting theft, saying that
they could not otherwise live, as their masters neither provided them with
food or raiment; and I said they might lawfully take necessaries from their
masters, especially as they had forcibly deprived them of their subsistence
and liberty. Some who were soldiers excused themselves from having gone to
the wars, as otherwise they would be slain; these I forbid to go against
Christians, declaring, that if slain for their refusal, God would account
them as martyrs. After this I gave the holy communion to these people on
Easter day, and I hope, with the blessing of God to many, being assisted by
the Nestorians, who lent me their chalice and paten. They baptized above
threescore persons on Easter eve with great solemnity, to the great joy of
all the Christians.

Soon after this William Bouchier was grievously sick, and when recovering,
the monk Sergius visited him, and gave him so great a doze of rhubarb as
had almost killed him. On this I expostulated with the monk, that he ought
either to go about as an apostle, doing miracles by the virtue of prayer
and the Holy Ghost, or as a physician, according to the rules of the
medical aid, and not to administer strong potions to people who were not
prepared. About this time the principal priest of the Nestorians, who was a
kind of archdeacon over the rest, became sick $ and when I endeavoured, at
the request of his family, to prevail upon the monk to visit him, he said,
"Let him alone for he and three others intend to procure an order from
Mangu-khan to expel you and I." And I learnt afterwards, that there was a
dispute between them, as Mangu-khan had sent four jascots on Easter eve to
the monk, to distribute among the priests; and Sergius, keeping one to
himself, had given three to the priests, one being a counterfeit, and the
priests thought Sergius had kept too great a share to himself. Finding the
archdeacon in a dying way, I administered to him the Eucharist and extreme
unction, which he received with great humility and devotion; but, by the
advice of the monk, I quitted him before he died, as otherwise I could not
have entered the court of Mangu-khan for a whole year. When he was dead,
the monk said to me, "Never mind it: This man only, among the Nestorians,
had any learning, and