Of attack, is too much perplexed by
difficulties of chronology to be cited with confidence. Anyhow they were
gathering wealth, and after years of exile they began to dread what might
follow old Kublai's death, and longed to carry their gear and their own
grey heads safe home to the Lagoons. The aged Emperor growled refusal to
all their hints, and but for a happy chance we should have lost our
mediaeval Herodotus.
[Sidenote: Circumstances of the Departure of the Polos from the Kaan's
Court.]
21. Arghun Khan of Persia, Kublai's great-nephew, had in 1286 lost his
favourite wife the Khatun Bulughan; and, mourning her sorely, took steps
to fulfil her dying injunction that her place should be filled only by a
lady of her own kin, the Mongol Tribe of Bayaut. Ambassadors were
despatched to the Court of Kaan-baligh to seek such a bride. The message
was courteously received, and the choice fell on the lady Kokachin, a
maiden of 17, "moult bele dame et avenant." The overland road from
Peking to Tabriz was not only of portentous length for such a tender
charge, but was imperilled by war, so the envoys desired to return by sea.
Tartars in general were strangers to all navigation; and the envoys, much
taken with the Venetians, and eager to profit by their experience,
especially as Marco had just then returned from his Indian mission, begged
the Kaan as a favour to send the three Firinghis in their company.