O Khan, there is a maid,
whose lovely features I now have with me, most worthy to be raised up
to thy nuptial couch." And the miscreant laid at the feet of the Great
Khan the portrait of the peerless Chaoukeun.
The chief finished his repast, and then with his lance turned over the
image of the pearl beyond all price. He looked at it, then passed it to
those around him. The savage warriors stared at the lovely portrait, and
admired it not--yet did they long for war. "Tell me, O chiefs," said the
Great Khan, "is that baby-face you look at worth contending for?"
And, with one voice, the chiefs replied that she was worthy to share the
nuptial couch of the Great Khan.
"Be it so," replied he, "I am no judge of beauty. Let the encampment be
broken up--this evening we move southwards." And the Tartar chief
entered the northern provinces of the celestial empire, with his hundred
thousand warriors, destroying all with fire and sword, proving his
sincere wish to unite himself to the Chinese nation by the
indiscriminate slaughter of man, woman, and child; and his ardent love
for the peerless Chaoukeun, by making a nuptial torch of every town and
village.
Ti-tum, tilly-lilly, ti-tum, ti.
But we must return to the celestial court, and astonish the world with
the wonderful events which there took place. The astrologers and wise
men had consulted the heavens, and had ascertained that on the
thirty-third minute after the thirteenth hour, the marriage procession
must set out, or the consummation would not be prosperous.
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