Mangoo Khan was determined to exterminate the whole race of the Ismaïlites, and orders to that effect had already reached Hoolagoo, who was only waiting to execute them till Kirdkoh should have surrendered. As the garrison of that place continued obstinate, he no longer ventured to delay. Orders for indiscriminate massacre were issued, and 12,000 Ismaïlites soon fell as victims. The process was short; wherever a member of the society was met he was, without any trial, ordered to kneel down, and his head instantly rolled on the ground. Hoolagoo sent one of his vizirs to Casveen, where the family of Rukn-ed-deen were residing, and the whole of them were put to death, except two (females it is said), who were reserved to glut the vengeance of the princess Boolghan Khaloon, whose father Jagatai had perished by the daggers of the Assassins. The siege of Kirdkoh was committed by Hoolagoo (who was now on his march to Bagdad to put an end to the empire of the khalifs) to the princes of Mazenderân and Ruyan. The castle held out for three years, and the siege was rendered remarkable by the following curious occurrence:--It was in the beginning of the spring when a poet named Koorbee of Ruyan came to the camp. He began to sing, in the dialect of Taberistan, a celebrated popular song of the spring, beginning with these lines:-- When the sun from the fish to the ram doth return, Spring's banner waves high on the breeze of the morn.[66] [Footnote 66: "And Day, with his _banner_ of radiance _unfurled_, Shines in through the mountainous portal that opes Sublime from that valley of bliss to the world," says Mr. Moore in his "Lalla Rookh," undoubtedly without any knowledge of the eastern song. His original was perhaps Campbell's "Andes, giant of the western star, His meteor _standard_ to the winds _unfurled_, Looks from his throne of clouds o'er half the _world_;" which was again, in all probability, suggested, like Gray's "Loose his beard, and hoary hair Stream'd like a _meteor_ to the troubled air," by Milton's "Imperial _ensign_, which, full high advanced, Shone like a _meteor_ streaming to the wind." It is thus that the particles of poetry, like those of matter, are in eternal circulation, and forming new combinations.] The song awoke in the minds of princes and soldiers the recollection of the vernal delights they had left behind them; an invincible longing after them seized the whole army; and, without reflecting on the consequences, they broke up the siege, and set forth to enjoy the season of flowers in the fragrant gardens of Mazenderân. Hoolagoo was greatly incensed when he heard of their conduct, and sent a body of troops against them, but forgave them on their making due apologies and submissions.