In Hulaku’s camp, Rokneddin was given into the custody of a guard of Tartars; and officers of the khan accompanied the grand-master’s deputies into the district Rudbar, in order to demolish the castles belonging to the Assassins, there situated: others were despatched to the two grand-priorates of Syria and Kuhistan, to summon the commandants of the places belonging to the order, to surrender them to Hulaku, in the name of the last grand-master. The number of these strongholds amounted to more than a hundred; and these, by which the mountainous parts of Kuhistan, Irak, and Syria, were crowned, formed the girdle of the Assassins’ power, reaching from the shores of the Caspian to those of the Mediterranean sea; in all these, the dagger was the insignia of dominion. In Rudbar, alone, more than forty were levelled with the ground, all well fortified and full of treasure. The three strongest refused obedience to Hulaku’s summons, and Rokneddin’s commands; the commanders of Alamut, the grand-master’s capital, of Lamsir and Kirdkuh, replied, that they were waiting for the khan’s arrival to surrender them to him. Hulaku struck his camp, and appeared, in a few days, before Alamut; he sent the captive grand-master to the foot of the ramparts to persuade the inhabitants by promises and threats, to surrender; Rokneddin obeyed, but the governors of the fortress refused to yield. Hulaku left a blockading force before Alamut, and marched to Lamsir, whose inhabitants came out to meet him, and offer their allegiance; the constancy of the Alamuters being shaken by this, they sent an envoy to Rokneddin, to beg him to intercede with the enraged prince in their favour. By the mediation of Rokneddin, Hulaku allowed the commander a safe conduct to the camp. The inhabitants requested three days to remove their money and goods, this was permitted; and, on the third, the castle was given up to pillage. Alamut, or the Eagle’s Nest, so called from its inaccessible height, lay on a rock, which presented the shape of a lion kneeling, with his neck stretched on the ground: the walls rose from the lion’s rock, which they equalled in solidity, as it did them in its perpendicular rise; they were vaulted for the defence of the garrison; the rock was excavated into corn magazines and cellars for honey and wine; these had been, for the most part, filled in the time of Hassan Sabah; and so excellent was the choice of the spot, and the care bestowed upon it, that neither had the wheat become mouldy, nor the wine sour; which was considered by the Ismailites as a miracle of their founder. The Mongols, who, without knowledge of the locality, sought in the subterraneous chambers and cellars, for treasure, fell into the wine and honey.