“Volles veioir merveilles? dist li Rois Seignouris”

to Bauduin and his friends, and on their assenting he makes the signal to one of his men on the battlements, and in a twinkling

  “Quant le vinrent en l’air salant de tel avis,
  Et aussi liement, et aussi esjois,
  Qu’il deust conquester mil livres de parisis! 
  Ains qu’il venist a tiere il fut mors et fenis,
  Surles roches agues desrompis corps et pis,"[1] etc.

(Cathay, 153; Remusat, Nouv.  Mel. I. 178; Mines de l’Orient, III. 201 seqq.; Nangis in Duchesne, V. 332; Pipino in Muratori, IX. 705; Defremery in J.  As. ser.  V. tom. v. 34 seqq.; Cent.  Nov.  Antiche, Firenze, 1572, p. 91; Bauduin de Sebourc, I. 359.)

The following are some of the more notable murders or attempts at murder ascribed to the Ismailite emissaries either from Syria or from Persia:—­

A.D. 1092.  Nizum-ul-Mulk, formerly the powerful minister of Malik Shah,
Seljukian sovereign of Persia, and a little later his two sons. 1102.  The
Prince of Homs, in the chief Mosque of that city. 1113.  Maudud, Prince of
Mosul, in the chief Mosque of Damascus.  About 1114.  Abul Muzafar ’Ali,
Wazir of Sanjar Shah, and Chakar Beg, grand-uncle of the latter. 1116. 
Ahmed Yel, Prince of Maragha, at Baghdad, in the presence of Mahomed,
Sultan of Persia. 1121.  The Amir Afdhal, the powerful Wazir of Egypt, at
Cairo. 1126.  Kasim Aksonkor, Prince of Mosul and Aleppo, in the Great
Mosque at Mosul. 1127.  Moyin-uddin, Wazir of Sanjar Shah of Persia. 1129. 
Amir Billah, Khalif of Egypt. 1131.  Taj-ul Muluk Buri, Prince of Damascus.
1134.  Shams-ul-Muluk, son of the preceding. 1135-38.  The Khalif
Mostarshid, the Khalif Rashid, and Daud, Seljukian Prince of Azerbaijan.
1149.  Raymond, Count of Tripoli. 1191.  Kizil Arzlan, Prince of Azerbaijan.
1192.  Conrad of Montferrat, titular King of Jerusalem; a murder which King
Richard has been accused of instigating. 1217.  Oghulmish, Prince of
Hamadan.

And in 1174 and 1176 attempts to murder the great Saladin. 1271.  Attempt to murder Ala’uddin Juwaini, Governor of Baghdad, and historian of the Mongols. 1272.  The attempt to murder Prince Edward of England at Acre.

In latter years the Fidawi or Ismailite adepts appear to have let out their services simply as hired assassins.  Bibars, in a letter to his court at Cairo, boasts of using them when needful.  A Mahomedan author ascribes to Bibars the instigation of the attempt on Prince Edward. (Makrizi, II. 100; J.  As. XI. 150.)