Mounds of bones marked his road, witnesses of devastations which other historians record in detail. He found Christian prisoners from Germany in the heart of "Tartary" (at Talas), and was compelled to observe the ceremony of passing between two fires, as a bringer of gifts to a dead Khan, gifts which were treated by the Mongols as evidence of submission. This insulting behaviour, and the language of the letter with which André reappeared, marked the mission a failure: King Louis, says Joinville, ""se repenti fort"" ("felt very sorry").