THE DESCENT OF BOLSHEVISM
seems to have had his remorseful moments. Once, at least, he feared lest he should die without obtaining a knowledge of the truth! As a rule, however, his self-confidence and self-sufficiency triumphed in the end, even though he recognized the virtue of compromise. For on certain occasions, to mollify his followers, he would announce from the pulpit that the gates of mercy and grace are open to those who obey him; that they are the elect of mankind, free from all the obligations of the law, released from the burden and bondage of all commands and prohibitions. Except, of course, his own. For he, Hasan ibn Sabah, has brought to them the day of resurrection. A saturnalia such as that of the Mazdakites generally followed these pronouncements.
But the dynasties he had set out to desstroy,—the Fatemite of Egypt, the Abbaside of Baghdad, the Seljuk of Persia,—were still standing and holding their own despite his thousand secret daggers. Hasan, therefore, would set up one of his own. And by bribing his followers with
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