tained possession of a dozen or more castles in 1099 and 1100 A. D., and he had become so strong that he no longer confined his operations to the regions of Persia. The daggers of the Assassins now took wider range. In 1102 A. D. the Governor of Hums in Syria was struck down by them, and the order began to secure castles in that region. The first one mentioned as seized by them in Syria was Sarmin, about a day's journey south of Aleppo, and it became the residence of Hassan's grand-prior, Abu-l-Feth by name. Even the Governor of Aleppo became the friend and protector of the order, and connived at their dastardly deeds, perhaps through fear of their daggers. Modûd, the Governor of Damascus, soon after fell a victim. Fear of them became general. In 1113 A. D. the Governor of Aleppo died, and the people rose upon the members of the order in that city, and cut down without mercy some three hundred of them, men, women, and children,-and about two hundred more were cast into prison.

But the Assassins took ample vengeance, and in 1119 the Governor of Aleppo and one of his sons were assassinated. They grew bolder and bolder, and demanded castles from the local government, who stood in such fear of their daggers that they often yielded to the demand, or utterly demolished the castles lest they should. fall into the hands of the order.

est rank.

Meanwhile in Persia the reign of terror had been fully commenced. The victims of the "Old Man of the Mountains" fell like autumn leaves, many of them men of the highHe did not always use the dagger. There were some among his enemies whom he chose to terrorize, and thus subdue to his will, so that they would not stand in his The Sultan Sanjar was taught that his life was safe only so long as the "Old Man of the Mountains" willed it. A slave of the Sultan was a member of the order, unsuspected by his master. He was commanded by Hassan to place a dagger by the Sultan's side while asleep. When the

way.

His fear

Sultan awoke he recognized the sign and trembled. was not lulled when he shortly received from the "Old Man" the following laconic message: "Were we not well disposed towards Sultan Sanjar, we should have fixed the dagger in his breast instead of in the ground." The Sultan was still further terrified by the sudden death of his brother, who was besieging Alamût, doubtless poisoned by the foe. Peace was made with Hassan forthwith, which not only confirmed him in his possessions, but assigned him certain revenues from the land.

But Hassan was not content with shedding the blood of his outside foes: he raised his hand against his own kin, seemingly from mere lust of blood. His nephew, the grandprior of the order in Syria, and his two sons, fell by the dagger at his command. He did not intend that any of his successors should surpass him in iniquity. It would have been natural had he himself been struck down by one of his followers, but he was not. His death occurred in 1125 A. D., at the age of ninety. He had reigned as grand-master of the order thirty-seven years, during which he never once left the castle of Alamût, and twice only his apartments to show himself upon the terrace. His seclusion was designed to surround his almost unbounded sway with the veil of mystery and impress his followers with awe.

Hassan's successor in the office of grand-master was Bursurgomid, who had been one of his leading commanders. He carried out most fully the policy of Hassan, and the dagger was busy as before. Mahmûd succeeded Sanjar as Sultan about the same time, and thought to fight the Assassins with their own weapons,-the dagger and treachery,-but in these he was no match for the "Old Man of the Mountains.” He had no such band of trusty followers. He succeeded, however, in capturing Alamût in 1130 A. D., but accomplished little more. The Turks of Persia and throughout the East were too much divided to make the united and steady

effort necessary to root out the accursed brood.

The Assas

sins profited by their divisions to gain place after place, and plied the dagger with strange impunity.

A certain Bahram distinguished himself in Syria as a worthy follower of the "Old Man of the Mountains." He first put to death his uncle at Bagdad, and then proceeded to Syria, and at Damascus became a preacher of righteousness according to the creed of the Assassins. He gained many followers, and persuaded the Governor of Damascus to surrender to him the castle of Banias, situated on the coast south of Latakia, and this castle became the headquarters of the sect in Syria, 1129 A. D. Here the Assassins gathered from all quarters, and struck terror into the hearts of all neighboring chiefs. If any one was attacked by the Assassins, no chief dared offer assistance, lest he should be struck down by the dagger. Ismail, the successor of Bahram at Banias, gained even a stronger foothold at Damascus. He sent there a certain Abu-l-Wefa, who obtained great influence, and became chief judge in the city, and used his position of course to betray his patrons. He entered into correspondence with the crusaders to deliver Damascus into their hands in exchange for Tyre. The crusaders eagerly agreed, for they had long coveted the famous city of DamasIt was a strange alliance, this of the dagger and the cross; but no party in those days cared much about means, so long as the end was gained. This famous plot did not, however, succeed. The Governor of Damascus discovered it in time to save the city, and both parties to it suffered severely. The adherents of the Assassins in Damascus were massacred without mercy. Six thousand-men, women, and children -perished at the hands of the enraged Moslems, and Abu1-Wefa was hewn to pieces. The crusaders were approaching Damascus, all unconscious that their allies had been slain. and their plan frustrated. They were careless of discipline, and dispersed among the villages for plunder, when they were

cus.

furiously attacked by a Moslem force from Damascus, and suffered a complete defeat. They obtained, however, the castle of Banias, which Ismail delivered into their hands, fearing an attack from the Moslems of Damascus. These events took place in 1130 A. D., the year in which Alamût was lost, as before mentioned, but both these places were soon after recovered.

Meanwhile the dagger was plied relentlessly in the East and West. In 1127, Kâsim ud-Dowlet, a distinguished general, was struck down in a mosque at Mosul by eight Assassins disguised as dervishes, of whom he killed three before he received his death-blow. The others, save one, were cut down by the attendants of Kâsim, as they doubtless expected to be. It was characteristic of the Assassins to glory in death met in executing the orders of the grand-master. The only one who escaped at this time was a youth. His mother, upon hearing of his escape, put on mourning; had he perished, she would have put on garments of joy. length could fanaticism go among the Assassins. ious methods employed by them in securing their victims attest their ingenuity and boldness. The vizir of the Sultan Sanjar was assaulted in a characteristic way. The Assassin who had been commissioned to murder him obtained the position of groom in his stables. One day he approached the vizir, leading his favorite horse, and as he neared him, he patted the horse on the neck, and dexterously produced a dagger, concealed under the mane, with which he killed the vizir.

To such

The var

The Governor of Damascus who massacred the six thousand adherents of the order, as above mentioned, was assassinated two years later. No prince was safe. The dagger lay in wait for them day and night. Among their most trusted servants might lurk adherents to the "Old Man of the Mountains." It is strange what a fascination the creed of this accursed sect seemed to have for the people of the East

in those days. It would be an unending task to enumerate the victims of the "Old Man of the Mountains." They fell His arm reached over half a

thick and fast on every side.

continent, striking high and low. It extended to Egypt, and with a kind of inexorable justice struck the Fatimite caliph, a member of the dynasty that had nursed and promulgated the accursed doctrines preached by Hassan ben Sabâh. The Caliph Amir and his vizir were assassinated in 1129, and, not long after, the grand-master turned his attention to still more distinguished prey. Heretofore the Assassins had spared the head of orthodox Islam; but in 1134 A. D. the Caliph of Bagdad fell a victim, and the Assassins, not content with his murder, horribly mutilated his body, as though to testify their scorn of his sacred office as spiritual head of the faithful. And yet they outwardly still professed the doctrines of the Koran and honored the Prophet.

The succeeding caliph was murdered by them a short time after his accession. Terror now seized the successors of the Prophet, and fear of the dagger of the "Old Man of the Mountains" imprisoned them in the palace at Bagdad. The faithful no longer saw their spiritual head. The second grand-master of the Assassins died in 1137 A. D., and was followed by his son Mohammed. From this time on, the office became hereditary. This was not the design of Hassan, the founder of the order, who intended that the best man in the order should be appointed to the office.

Mohammed continued the policy of his predecessors most fully. He occupied new strongholds, and plied the dagger without stint. Among the castles secured were Kadmûs, Kahaf, and Masyaf, in the Nusairi mountains in Syria. The last named became the chief seat of the order in Syria, and there reside the descendants of the Assassins at the present day, under the name of Ismailians.

With the accession of Hassan II., the son of Mohammed, in 1163, we reach a new stage in the history of the order. As