Residing at Alamut." And it may be noted that Odoric, a generation after
Polo, puts the Old Man at Millescorte, which looks like Malasgird,
north of Lake Van, (H. des Assass. p. 104; J. R. G. S. III. 16;
Cathay, p. ccxliii.)
[1] This story has been transferred to Peter the Great, who is alleged to
have exhibited the docility of his subjects in the same way to the
King of Denmark, by ordering a Cossack to jump from the Round Tower at
Copenhagen, on the summit of which they were standing.
CHAPTER XXV.
HOW THE OLD MAN CAME BY HIS END.
Now it came to pass, in the year of Christ's Incarnation, 1252, that Alaue,
Lord of the Tartars of the Levant, heard tell of these great crimes of the
Old Man, and resolved to make an end of him. So he took and sent one of
his Barons with a great Army to that Castle, and they besieged it for
three years, but they could not take it, so strong was it. And indeed if
they had had food within it never would have been taken. But after being
besieged those three years they ran short of victual, and were taken. The
Old Man was put to death with all his men [and the Castle with its Garden
of Paradise was levelled with the ground]. And since that time he has had
no successor; and there was an end to all his villainies.[NOTE 1]
