ome to
Greece to the city of Nye, and to the city of Fynepape,[10] and after
to the city of Dadrenoble,[11] and after to Constantinople, that was
wont to be called Bezanzon.[12] And there dwells commonly the Emperor
of Greece. And there is the most fair church and the most noble of all
the world; and it is of Saint Sophie. And before that church is the
image of Justinian the emperor, covered with gold, and he sits upon a
horse crowned. And he was wont to hold a round apple of gold in his
hand; but it is fallen out thereof. And men say there, that it is a
token that the emperor has lost a great part of his lands and of his
lordships; for he was wont to be Emperor of Roumania and of Greece, of
all Asia the less, and of the land of Syria, of the land of Judea in
the which is Jerusalem, and of the land of Egypt, of Persia, and of
Arabia. But he has lost all but Greece; and that land he holds all
only. And men would many times put the apple into the image's hand
again, but it will not hold it. This apple betokens the lordship that
he had over all the world, that is round. And the other hand he lifts
up against the East, in token to menace the misdoers. This image
stands upon a pillar of marble at Constantinople.

II

AT THE COURT OF THE GREAT CHAN[13]

The men of Tartary have let make another city that is called Caydon.
And it has twelve gates, and between the two gates there is always a
great mile; so that the two cities, that is to say, the old and the
new, have in circuit more than twenty mile.

In this city is the court of the great Chan in a full great palace and
the most passing fair in all the world, of the which the walls be in
circuit more than two mile. And within the walls it is full of other
palaces. And in the garden of the great palace there is a great hill,
upon the which there is another palace; and it is the most fair and
the most rich that any man may devise. And all about the palace and
the hill be many trees bearing many diverse fruits. And all about the
hill be ditches great and deep, and beside them be great fish ponds on
that one part and on that other. And there is a full fair bridge to
pass over the ditches. And in these vivaries be so many wild geese and
ganders and wild ducks and swans and herons that it is without number.
And all about these ditches and vivaries is the great garden full of
wild beasts. So that when the great Chan will have any disport on
that, to take any of the wild