Mangu had already, some time before, issued the command to Hulaku, to exterminate all the Ismailites, and not to spare even the infant at his mother’s breast: and immediately upon Rokneddin’s departure, the sanguinary task was commenced, which had only been delayed till Kirdkuh and the remainder of the castles of the Assassins in Kuhistan and Syria should have fallen. He sent one of his viziers to Kaswin, to put to death, indiscriminately, Rokneddin’s wives, children, brothers, sisters, and slaves; only two relations (females apparently) of Rokneddin, were selected from this devoted band, not for mercy, but to be the victims of the princess, Bulghan Khatun’s, private revenge; her father, Jagatai, having bled by the Assassin’s daggers. A command, similar to that given to the governor of Kaswin, was issued to the viceroy of Khorassan. He assembled the captive Ismailites, and twelve thousand of these wretched creatures were slaughtered, without distinction of age. Warriors went through the provinces, and executed the fatal sentence, without mercy or appeal. Wherever they found a disciple of the doctrine of the Ismailites, they compelled him to kneel down, and then cut off his head. The whole race of Kia Busurgomid, in whose descendants the grand-mastership had been hereditary, were exterminated. The “devoted to murder” were not now the victims of the order’s vengeance, but that of outraged humanity. The sword was against the dagger, and the executioner destroyed the murderer. The seed, sowed for two centuries, was now ripe for the harvest, and the field ploughed by the Assassin’s dagger, was reaped by the sword of the Mongol. The crime had been terrible, but no less terrible was the punishment.