Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/118

92 if religion it can be called, consisted in a blind obedience to the will of their ruler, even when it led to certain death. Assassination was held by them to be a cardinal virtue, and was blindly carried out whenever ordered by their chief. The monarch on his throne, in the midst of his court, and surrounded by the most faithful guard, was not secure from the dagger of one df the Hassassins, who, being utterly regardless of his own life, rarely failed to accomplish his mission. The dread in which the tribe was held prompted all the Mahometan leaders of the East to cultivate friendly relations with them, and they were in the receipt of subsidies in the form of tribute from nations far more powerful in point of numbers than themselves. Their name was derived from the Persian word Hassasin, signifying a dagger, which was the only weapon worn by them, and the one with which they invariably carried out the behests of their chief.

It is recorded that on one occasion the sultan of Damascus despatched an envoy to the Old Man of the Mountain demanding the payment of an annual tribute under threat of invasion. That potentate, in order to show the envoy the extent of his power over his subjects, directed one of them to cast himself headlong from the top of a tower, and another to plunge a dagger into his heart. Both commands were instantly obeyed. The prince then turning to the messenger informed him that he had. 60,000 subjects, every one of whom would perform his will with the same blind obedience. Nothing more was heard of the sultan’s demand for tribute.

The only rulers in the East who had steadily resisted the demand for blackmail on the part of the Hassassins, were the Masters of the Hospital and Temple. They had, at an early date, warned the Old Man that on the occasion of the first assassination the tribe should be at once exterminated, and it was well known that the threat was not an idle one. Chateauneuf, therefore, no sooner heard of the audacious demand on Louis, than he instantly dismissed the embassy with the notification that unless ample reparation were at once tendered for the insult, the tribe might rest assured they would receive a visit from the whole force of the Order, for the purpose of inflicting summary chastisement. Within the stipulated time