268 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. we say what comes into our mind, and we excuse him who stammers. We salute you." All this eloquence made small impression on the Tartar Houlagou, who immediately advanced his army, and laid siege to Aleppo. Twenty catapults played for five days against the town, and it was taken by assault on the 18th of January, 1260. An incredible amount of treasure was found in it, and the carnage was still more horrible than at Bagdad. The streets were choked up with corpses, and it is stated that 1 00,000 women and children were taken and sold for slaves in Little Ar- menia, or in the territories of Europeans. The Mongols were masters of Syria, and they dismantled the towns and citadels, and planted their garrisons as far as Gaza. After the conquest of Syria, Houlagou was preparing to pass on to Jerusalem, deliver the Holy City from the hands of the Saracens, and restore it to the Christians ; when he received the news that Mangou his brother was dead, and that the Tartars were waiting to proclaim him their Grand Khan. Mangou had been killed in China in the month of December 1259, in a war against the Chinese Emperor, Houlagou, therefore, was obliged to leave Syria, but he left an army of a hundred thousand men, under the command of a general named Kitou-Boga, who was said to be much attached to the Christians. Houlagou himself had been very favourably disposed towards them, and intended, it was said, to be baptized and make a public profession of Christianity. This welcome news was carried to Rome by a priest named John, who gave himself out for an envoy from Houlagou, and he asked, on behalf of the Tartar prince, that there might be sent to Persia a priest distinguished for
