Long afterward the king came in a dream to see De Joinville: “Marvelously joyous and glad of heart, and I myself was right glad to see him in my castle. And I said to him, ‘Sire, when you go hence, I will lodge you in a house of mine, that is in a city of mine, called Chevillon.’ And he answered me laughing, and said to me, ‘Lord of Joinville, by the faith I owe you, I have no wish so soon to go hence.’” It was at the age of eighty-five De Joinville wrote his memoirs, still blithe as a boy because he was not grown up. NOTE. From _Memoirs of the Crusaders_, by Villehardouine and De Joinville. Dent & Co. III A. D. 1260 THE MIDDLE AGES IN ASIA THE year 1260 found Saint Louis of France busy reforming his kingdom, while over the way the English barons were reforming King Henry III on the eve of the founding of parliament, and the Spaniards were inventing the bull fight by way of a national sport. Our own national pastime then was baiting Jews. They got twopence per week in the pound for the use of their money, but next year one of them was caught in the act of cheating, a little error which led to the massacre of seven hundred. That year the great Khan Kublai came to the throne of the Mongol Empire, a pastoral realm of the grass lands extending from the edge of Europe to the Pacific Ocean. Kublai began to build his capital, the city of Pekin, and in all directions his people extended their conquests. The looting and burning of Bagdad took them seven days and the resistless pressure of their hordes was forcing the Turks upon Europe. Meanwhile in the dying Christian empire of the East, the Latins held Constantinople with Beldwin on the throne, but next year the Greek army led by Michael Paleologus crept through a tunnel and managed to capture the city. Among the merchants at Constantinople in 1260 were the two Polo brothers, Nicolo and Matteo, Venetian nobles, who invested the whole of their capital in gems, and set off on a trading voyage to the Crimea. Their business finished, they went on far up the Volga River to the court of a Mongol prince, and to him they gave the whole of their gems as a gift, getting a present in return with twice the money. But now their line of retreat was blocked by a war among the Mongol princes, so they went off to trade at Bokhara in Persia where they spent a year. And so it happened that the Polo brothers met with certain Mongol envoys who were returning to the court of their Emperor Kublai. “Come with us,” said the envoys. “The great khan has never seen a European and will be glad to have you as his guests.” So the Polos traveled under safe conduct with the envoys, a year’s journey, until they reached the court of the great khan at Pekin and were received with honor and liberality.