254 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. On the first of February, Houlagou took the city of Bagdad by storm, and thus put an end to the power of the Caliphs. He had made Mostassim believe that he was willing to give his daughter in marriage to the Caliph's son, Aboubeker, and on the 10th of February Mostassim was seen issuing from his palace, with his wife, his children, his jewels, and all the most consider- able persons of his court; he was installed in a magni- ficent tent near one of the gates of the city ; and the magistrates, officers, and lawyers of the place assembled, as if to witness the nuptial ceremony, and draw up the contract. But when the principal people were thus all got together, the Tartars set on them, and put them all to death. Bagdad, the city of science, learning, and pleasure, was given up to pillage and slaughter, and more than 800,000 persons were mercilessly destroyed, Sanut * declares that Houlagou killed the Caliph by pouring molten gold down his throat, in mockery of his avarice. The chronicle of St. Louis says that he was shut in an iron cage, and that the Mongol general, adding insult to cruelty, told him that a person of his quality ought not to be fed like an ordinary mortal, and ordered that he should have no food but the gold and jewels that he had been so fond of and had kept to himself, instead of distributing them amongst his troops. It has been said, too, that Houlagou, at the solicitation of his wife, had the mosques rased to the ground, and forbade the Saracens to pay homage to Mahomet ; and it is certain that in the sack of the city he spared the Christians. The Nestorians, who were in considerable number in
- Marin Sanut, " Secreta ficleliuni crucis, &c.," lib. iii. ch. 7.
