CHAP. XIV.

SERDAR OF HERAT.

319

ferings were great when I slept in an open ruin, with scanty clothing, and on the bare earth. The thought that Persia might be reached in ten days cheered me up. Still, it was not so easy an enterprise to arrive thither. To go alone was impossible, and the caravan, preparing to go to Meshed, wished to wait still for an increase of travelers and a more favorable opportunity; for the Tekke Turkomans not only rendered the journey exceedingly unsafe, but plundered villages and caravans, and carried off captives before the very gates of Herat. During the first days of my arrival I heard that a Persian envoy, named Mehemmed Bakir Khan, sent by the Governor Prince of Khorasan to congratulate the young Serdar of Herat, proposed soon to return to Teheran. I immediately waited upon him, and begged him to take me with him. The Persian was very polite; but, although I repeated to him over and over again the state of destitution in which I was, he paid no attention to that statement, and asked me (the dreadfully disfigured hadji) if I had brought back with me any fine horses from Bokhara! Every word of his seemed to indicate a wish on his part to penetrate my secret. Seeing that I had nothing to expect, I left him. He quitted Herat soon after, accompanied by many of the hadjis who had traveled with me from Samarcand and Kerki. All abandoned me-all but Mollah Ishak, my faithful companion from Kungrat, who had believed when I said that in Teheran better fortunes awaited me, and who stood by me. The honest young man obtained our daily food and fuel by begging, and got ready, besides, our evening sup

per, which he even refused respectfully to share with me out of the same plate. Mollah Ishak forms, in another point of view, one of the most interesting of my episodes. He lives now, at this day, in Pesth, instead of being at Mecca, and in the sequel of my narrative we shall have occasion to speak of him.

Not to neglect any expedient to forward my journey on to Meshed, I went to the reigning prince, Serdar Mehemmed Yakoub Khan, son of the present King of Afghanistan, a lad in his sixteenth year, who had been placed at the head of affairs in the conquered province, his father, immediately after his accession to the throne, having been obliged to hasten away to Kabul, in order to prevent any steps being taken by his brothers to contest the throne with him. The young prince resided in the charbag, in the palace which had also served for the dwelling of Major Todd. It had, it is true, suffered much during the siege, but was naturally preferred, as a residence, to the citadel, which was a mere ruin. One part of that quadrangular court, a garden as they were in the habit of calling it, although I saw in it only a few trees, served as night quarters for him and his numerous retinue, while in the portions situate on the opposite side an arz (public audience) of four or five hours' duration was held in a large long hall. The prince was generally seated at the window in an armchair, dressed in military uniform, with high collar; and as the numerous petitioners, whom he was obliged officially to receive, very much wearied him, he made the Risale Company (the élite of the Afghan troops) exercise before his window, and seemed highly de

CHAP. XIV.

INTERVIEW WITH THE SERDAR.

321

lighted with the wheeling of the columns, and the thundering word of command of the officer passing them in review, who, besides, pronounced the "Right shoulder forward! Left shoulder forward!" with a genuine English accent.

When I stepped into the court I have mentioned, accompanied by Mollah Ishak, the drill was at its most interesting point. The men had a very military bearing, far better than the Ottoman army, that was so drilled forty years ago. These might have been mistaken for European troops if most of them had not had on their bare feet the pointed Kabuli shoe, and had not had their short trowsers so tightly stretched by their straps that they threatened every moment to burst and fly up above the knee. After having watched the exercises a short time I went to the door of the reception-hall, which was filled by a number of servants, soldiers, and petitioners. If all made way for me, and allowed me undisturbed to enter the saloon, I had to thank the large turban I had assumed (my companion had assumed a similar one), as well as the "anchorite" appearance which my wearisome journey had imparted. I saw the prince as I have described; on his right hand sat his vizir, and next to him there were ranged along against the wall other officers, mollahs, and Heratis; among these there was also a Persian, Imamverdi Khan, who, on account of some roguery, had fled hither from (Djam) Meshed. Before the prince stood his keeper of the seal (möhürdar), and four or five other servants. True to my dervish character, on appearing I made the usual salutation, and occasioned no

X

surprise to the company when I stepped, even as I made it, right up to the prince, and seated myself between him and the vizir, after having required the latter, a corpulent Afghan, to make room for me by a push with the foot. This action of mine occasioned some laughing, but it did not put me out of countenance. I raised my hands to repeat the usual prayer required by the law.* While I was repeating it, the prince looked me full in the face. I saw his look of amazement, and when I was repeating the Amen, and all present were keeping time with me in stroking their beards, the prince half rose from his chair, and, pointing with his finger to me, he called out, half laughing and half bewildered, "Vallahi, Billahi Schuma, Inghiliz hestid!" ("By G—, I swear you are an Englishman!")

A ringing peal of laughter followed the sudden fancy of the young king's son, but he did not suffer it to divert him from his idea; he sprang down from his seat, placed himself right before me, and, clapping both his hands like a child who has made some lucky discovery, he called out, "Hadji, kurbunet" ("I would be thy victim"), "tell me, you are an Englishman in tebdil (disguise), are you not?" His action was so naïve that I was really sorry that I could not leave the boy in his illusion. I had cause to dread the wild fanaticism of the Afghans, and, assuming a manner as if the jest had gone too far, I said, "Sahib mekun" ("have done"); "you know the saying, 'He

*This is in Arabic, and to the following effect: "God our Lord, let us take a blessed place, for of a verity Thou art the best quarter-master."