In his possession gives the field as
argent, with no bend, and the three birds sable with beaks
gules, disposed thus ***.
[Illustration: Arms of the Polo[A]]
[A] [This coat of arms is reproduced from the Genealogies of
Priuli, Archivio di Stato, Venice. - H. C.]
[9] Marco Antonio Trevisano was elected Doge, 4th June, 1553, but died on
the 31st of May following. We do not here notice Ramusio's numerous
errors, which will be corrected in the sequel. [See p. 78.]
II. SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE EAST AT THE TIME OF THE JOURNEYS OF THE
POLO FAMILY.
9. The story of the travels of the Polo family opens in 1260.
[Sidenote: State of the Levant.]
Christendom had recovered from the alarm into which it had been thrown
some 18 years before when the Tartar cataclysm had threatened to engulph
it. The Tartars themselves were already becoming an object of curiosity
rather than of fear, and soon became an object of hope, as a possible help
against the old Mahomedan foe. The frail Latin throne in Constantinople
was still standing, but tottering to its fall. The successors of the
Crusaders still held the Coast of Syria from Antioch to Jaffa, though a
deadlier brood of enemies than they had yet encountered was now coming to
maturity in the Dynasty of the Mamelukes, which had one foot firmly
planted in Cairo, the other in Damascus.
