a person who kills another by attacking him at some disadvantage. It is also meant of one who hires himself to murder a person, in order to revenge Assassins, a tribe or clan in Syria, called also Ismaelians and Batanists. These people probably owed their origin to the Karmatians, a famous heretical sect among the Mahometans, who settled in Persia about the year 1090, whence, in process of time, they sent a colony into Syria, where they became possessed of a considerable tract of land among the mountains of Lebanon, extending itself from the neighbourhood of Antioch to Damascus.

The first chief and legislator of this remarkable tribe appears to have been Hafan Sabah, a subtle impostor, who by his artifices made fanatical and implicit slaves of his subjects. Their religion was compounded of that of the Magi, the Jews, the Chritians, and the Mahometans; but the capital article of their creed was to believe that the Holy Ghost resided in their chief; that his orders proceeded from God himself, and were real declarations of his divine pleasure. To this monarch the orientals gave the name of Scheik; but he is better known in Europe by the name of the Old Man of the Mountain. His dignity, instead of being hereditary, was confirmed by election; where merit, that is, a superior multiplicity and enormity of crimes, was the most effectual recommendation to a majority of suffrages.

This chief, from his exalted residence on the summit of mount Lebanon, like a vindictive deity, with the thunderbolt in his hand, sent inevitable death to all quarters of the world; so that from one end of the earth to the other, Khalifs, Emperors, Sultans, Kings, Princes, Christians, Mahometans, and Jews, every nation and people, execrated and dreaded his sanguinary power, from the strokes of which there was no security. At the least suggestion or whisper that he had threatened the death of any potentate, all immediately doubled their guards, and took every other precaution in their power. It is known that Philip Augustus king of France, on a premature advice that the Scheik intended to have him assassinated, instituted a new body-guard of men distinguished for their activity and courage, called sergeants d'Armes, with bras clubs, bows and arrows; and he himself never appeared without a club, fortified either with iron or gold. Most sovereigns paid secretly a pension to the Scheik, however scandalous and derogatory it might be to the lustre of majesty, for the safety of their persons. The Knights Templars alone dared to defy his secret machinations and open force. Indeed they were a permanent dispersed body, not to be cut off by malfeasances or assassinations.

This barbarous prince was furnished with resources unknown to all other monarchs, even to the most absolute despotic tyrant. His subjects would prostrate themselves at the foot of his throne, requesting to die by his hand or order, as a favour by which they were sure of passing into paradise. On them if danger made any impression, it was an emulation to press forward; and if taken in any enterprise, they went to the place of execution with a magnanimity unknown to others. Henry count of Champagne, who married Isabella daughter of Amaury king of Jerusalem, passing over part of the territory of the Assassins in his way to Syria, and talking highly of his power, their chief came to meet him, "Are your subjects (said the old man of the mountain) as ready in their submission as mine?" and, without slaying for an answer, made a sign with his hand, when ten young men in white, who were standing on an adjacent tower, instantly threw themselves down. On another occasion, Sultan Malek-Shah summoning the Scheik to submit himself to his government, and threatening him with the power of his arms, should he hesitate to comply; the latter, very composedly turning himself towards his guards, said to one of them, "Draw your dagger, and plunge it into your breast;" and to another, "Throw yourself headlong from yonder rock." His orders were no sooner uttered, than they were joyfully obeyed; and all the answer he deigned to give the sultan's envoy was, "Away to thy matter, and let him know I have many thousand subjects of the same disposition." Men so ready to destroy themselves were equally alert and resolute in being the ministers of death to others. At the command of their sovereign, they made no difficulty of stabbing any prince, even on his throne; and being well versed in the different dialects, they conformed to the dress and even the external religion of the country, that they might with less difficulty strike the fatal blow required by their chief. With the Saracens they were Mahometans; with the Franks, Christians; in one place they joined with the Mamalukes; in another, with the ecclesiastics or religious; and under this disguise, seized the first opportunity of executing their sanguinary commission. Of this we meet with an instance in the history of Saladin, while he was besieging Maubedge, the celebrated Hieropolis of antiquity. Being one day, with a few attendants, and they at some distance, reconnoitring the place for the better disposition of the attack, a man rushed on him with a dagger in his hand, and wounded him in the head; but the sultan, as he was endeavouring to repeat his stroke, wrestled the dagger from him, and, after receiving several wounds, laid him dead at his feet. Before the sultan had well recovered himself, a second encountered him to finish the treachery of the former; but he met with the same fate: he was succeeded with equal fury by a third, who also fell by the hand of that magnanimous prince whom he was sent to assassinate. And it was observed, that these wretches dealt about their fruitless blows as they lay in the agonies of death. With such rapidity was this tranacted, that it was over before Saladin's guards could come to his assistance. He retired to his tent, and in great perturbation throwing himself on his sopha ordered his servants to take a strict view of his household, and to cashier all suspected persons; at the same time alking with great earnestness, "Of whom have I deserved such treacherous usage?" but it afterwards appeared, that these villains had been sent by the old man of the mountain; of whom the vizir Kamchlegin had purchased the murder of Saladin, to free himself from so great a warrior whom he could not meet in the field. To animate them in their frantic obedience, the Scheik, before their departure on such attempts, used to give them a small forfaiture of some of the delights which he assured them would be their recompense in paradise. Delicious soporific drinks were given them; and while they lay asleep, they were carried into beautiful gardens, where every allurement invited their senses to the most exquisite gratifications. From these seats of voluptuousness, inflamed with liquor and enthusiastic views of perpetual enjoyments, they fallied forth to perform affininations of the blackest dye.

This people once had, or at least they feigned to have, an intention of embracing the Christian religion. They reigned a long time in Persia, and on mount Lebanon. Hulaku, a khan of the mogul Tartars, in the year 653 of the Hegira, or 1254 of the Christian era, entered their country and dispossessed them of several places; but it was not till the year 1272 that they were totally conquered. This achievement was owing to the conduct and intrepidity of the Egyptian forces sent against them by the sultan Bibaris. It has, however, been thought that the Druzes, who still reside among the eminences of mount Lebanon, and whose religion and customs are so little known, are a remnant of those barbarians.