At Karakorum, a small city, which Rubruquis compares to the town of St. Denis, near Paris, our ambassador-missionary maintained a public disputation with certain pagan priests, in the presence of three of the khan’s secretaries, of whom the first was a Christian, the second a Mohammedan, and the third a Buddhist. The conduct of the khan was distinguished by the most perfect toleration, as he commanded under pain of death that none of the disputants should slander, traduce, or abuse his adversaries, or endeavour by rumours or insinuations to excite popular indignation against them; an act of mildness from which Rubruquis, with the illiberality of a monk, inferred that Mangou was totally indifferent to all religion. His object, however, seems to have been to discover the truth; but from the disputes of men who argued with each other through interpreters wholly ignorant of the subject, and none of whom could clearly comprehend the doctrines he impugned, no great instruction was to be derived. Accordingly, the dispute ended, as all such disputes must, in smoke; and each disputant retired from the field more fully persuaded than ever of the invulnerable force of his own system. At length, perceiving that nothing was to be effected, and having, indeed, no very definite object to effect, excepting the conversion of the khan, which to a man who could not even converse with him upon the most ordinary topic, seemed difficult, Rubruquis took his leave of the Mongol court, and leaving his companion at Karakorum, turned his face towards the west. Returning by an easier or more direct route, he reached the camp of Batou in two months. From thence he proceeded to the city of Sarai on the Volga, and descending along the course of that river, entered Danghistan, crossed the Caucasus, and pursued his journey through Georgia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Syria. Here he discovered that, taught by misfortune or yielding to the force of circumstances, the French king had relinquished, at least for the present, his mad project of recovering Palestine. He was therefore desirous of proceeding to Europe, for the purpose of rendering this prince an account of his mission; but this being contrary to the wishes of his superiors, who had assigned him the convent of Acra for his retreat, he contented himself with drawing up an account of his travels, which was forwarded, by the first opportunity that occurred, to St. Louis in France. Rubruquis then retired to his convent, in the gloom of whose cloisters he thenceforward concealed himself from the eyes of mankind. It has been ascertained, however, that he was still living in 1293, though the exact date of his death is unknown.