[715] For many years a horde of plunderers had been established in the mountains of Phoenicia, in the neighbourhood of Tortosa and Tripoli, who, in the end, obtained the name of Assassins, from the small dagger which was their only weapon, and which was called _hassassin_. Their religion was a corrupted species of Islamism, and their government a fanatical despotism. Their chief was called sometimes the Ancient, sometimes the Lord of the Mountains, and among the Christians he obtained the name of the Old Man of the Mountains. By working on the exciteable imaginations of an illiterate and fanatical race, the lords of this extraordinary tribe had obtained over them an influence unknown to any other power which was ever brought to sway the mind of man. The will of the Old Man of the Mountains was absolute law to each of his subjects. Whatever were his commands, whether to slay themselves or another, they asked no questions--paused not to consider of justice or injustice--but obeyed; and when sent to execute the will of their lord upon anyone, they followed their object with a keen sagacity and unalterable perseverance, that placed the life of each individual in the hands of their remorseless monarch. Nothing could turn them aside from the pursuit; no difficulties were too great for them to surmount; and when they had struck the victim, if they escaped, it was well; but if they were taken, they met torture and death with stoical firmness, feeling certain of the joys of Paradise as a compensation for their sufferings. The number of this tribe was about sixty thousand, all conscientious murderers, whom no danger would daunt, and no human consideration could deter. Such were the men who slew Conrad of Montferrat; and yet the French with the wild inconsistency of their national hatred, attributed the deed to Richard, who never found aught on earth that could induce him to cover his wrath when it was excited, or to stay him from the open pursuit of revenge, which was always as bold and unconcealed as it was fierce and evanescent. From this tribe we have derived the word _assassin_.--See James of Vitry; Matthew of Paris; William of Tyre; Ducange ou Joinville. [716] Bernard the Treasurer; James of Vitry; William of Nangis. [717] Bernard; Vinesauf; Matthew Paris. [718] Little doubt can exist that one great cause of the abandonment of the crusade were the differences between Richard and the Duke of Burgundy. The Frenchman was jealous of the fame which the English king would have acquired by taking Jerusalem, and consequently took care that he should not effect that object. Such is the account given by Bernard the Treasurer--a Frenchman, who always showed a manifest tendency to exculpate his countrymen, whenever there existed a fair excuse. See the Chronicle in old French, published in the collection of Martenne and Durand. It was generally attributed to Hugh Plagon, but has since been proved to be the original of Bernard the Treasurer. [719] Vinesauf.