The armies of the Assassins being scattered, and their poniards broken in the destruction of their fortresses, Hulaku returned in the month Selhidje, of the same year, to Hamadan, where he had left his children. Rokneddin, who accompanied him, was treated with kindness, either from pity or contempt. Entirely degenerated from the blood of his fathers, he had not even the virtues of a common Assassin,—courage, and contempt of death; still less those of a grand-master,—strength of rule and state-craft. Already morally a slave, even before he fell into the hands of Hulaku, he still showed himself in the same character by the meanness of his pursuits. A Mongol girl, of the lowest grade, was the object of his affections, and Hulaku, who neglected no opportunity of exposing him to the shafts of public scorn, commanded a solemn marriage, on being asked for the slave by the prince of the Assassins. After the completion of the ceremony, Rokneddin begged the favour of being sent to the great khan Mangu: Hulaku was, at first, astonished at this senseless request, by which Rokneddin sought his own destruction; as, however, he did not feel himself called upon to prevent it, he gave him permission, and a troop of Mongols, as an escort. Rokneddin had promised on his way to persuade the garrison of Kirdkuh, the last castle of the Assassins which still held out against the Mongols, to surrender. He left Hulaku’s camp at Hamadan, on the first of Rebi-ul-ewel, in the 655th year of the Hegira;[255] as he passed Kirdkuh he sent the inhabitants a public message, requiring them to surrender; he, however, secretly instructed them to hold out, and to deliver the fortress up to no one. By this foolish, contradictory policy, by which he had already entailed the ruin of the order, he now accelerated his own. On arriving at Karakurum, the khan’s capital, the latter, without admitting him to an audience, sent him the following message: “If thou pretendest to be submissive, wherefore hast thou not surrendered the castle of Kirdkuh? return, and demolish the yet unyielded castles; then mayest thou share the honour of appearing in our imperial presence.” When Rokneddin and his escort, had reached the Oxus, on his return, the latter, under pretence of taking refreshment, made him dismount, and pierced him with their swords.