Bayan is impressed by Tristram’s skill with the English longbow and Walter’s scholarly knowledge. The two Englishmen enter Bayan's service, finding themselves at the center of the Mongol war machine. While Walter is fascinated by the advanced culture and military tactics of the Mongols, the honest Tristram is increasingly appalled by Bayan's brutal methods. The Legend of the Black Rose
The caravan also carries a tribute of women intended for the Khan. Among them is Maryam, the daughter of a captured English Crusader and a Syrian woman. Known as "The Black Rose" for her exotic beauty, she has spent her life in captivity and dreams of reaching England. The Black Rose(1950)
The story begins in England, 200 years after the Norman Conquest. Walter of Gurnie, a proud Saxon scholar and illegitimate son of the late Earl of Lessford, returns from Oxford to find himself disinherited. His only inheritance is a pair of boots—a final token of his father's love—while the family’s estate falls to his father’s Norman widow. Bayan is impressed by Tristram’s skill with the
Walter and Tristram travel to the Holy Land, eventually joining a massive merchant caravan bound for the court of Kublai Khan in Cathay (China). The caravan is protected by the fearsome Mongol General Bayan of the Hundred Eyes, a brilliant and ruthless strategist who is preparing to invade the region. The Legend of the Black Rose The caravan