By one of those chances for which no human conjecture can account, this very day happened to be one of those in which Ab8l-hassen used to converse with learned men and divines, and mention was made of the Emperor’s zeal for religion, and of the regard he always shewed to learned religious men. This observa­tion was glanced at by the learned men then present, who observed, “That his ordering his people to cut the throats of so many fine horses sent him by the Emperor of Iran*, and their flesh to be distributed to the poor, might be reckoned as a token of his hatred to heresy, but was no great proof of that zeal for religion, which so strongly recommends to repress and keep under controul the passions of the heart and the effusions of anger; and they added, that had the value of those horses, or the horses themselves, been distributed to the poor, they would have been the better for it, and the intent of liberality had been better fulfilled.” Luckily for the Emperor that Saadet-qhan was present. This officer, equally ingenious and brave, undertook to answer for his master’s behaviour on that occasion; and he did The Emper­or’s fanatical conduct inge­niously defended by his envoy. it in a manner equally subtle and rational. “He acknowledged that in the manner in which that action of his had been mis­reported, it must of course have fallen under the animadversion of men of sense and good nature, but that the fact had in reality happened in the following manner; nor had any order been given to cut the throats of those horses,—it is only a groundless report: The Emperor was reading the Coran, when those horses were brought to his sight. His Majesty, pleased with their appearance, wanted to bring to a pause his accustomed quantity of reading, and to put it off for another day; but at that very moment, his reading lead him to that part of the Holy Book, where mention is made that Soléi­man, son of Dä8d*, (upon whom be peace and grace for ever!) having been presented with some fine horses, paused in his prayers of ecclesiastical precept, and from pause to pause he slipt likewise over the time allotted to the preformance of prayers of Divine precept*; upon which it was revealed to him, that he must order those horses to have their throats cut. The Emperor having gone throughout that chapter, thought the contents addressed to himself, and to keep his own concupiscence under controul, he imitated the action of Saint Soléiman (on whom be peace!), and ordered the horses to be slaughtered. Let the uninformed world, added Sadet-qhan, say as it shall please; the fact is exactly as I have related.” The Doctors, having quietly heard the report, observed that, “If the fact had really happened as it was just now reported, how came it that the horses were sent two by two to the doors of the Iranian Lords in the Imperial service*, and slaughtered there?” Saadet-qhan answered, “That this was also a groundless report, which had been much embroidered by the malignity of an uninformed public; and that the fact was as follows: Shah-djehan-abad being then a new city, there were Persian Lords lodged in every quarter of it; and as slaughter­ing the horses in one single place might have occasioned a crowd and some tumult, whilst the poor of the next quarter would have remained without their share, orders were given to slaughter the horses in every quarter, two by two, that every one might enjoy a share of their flesh without tumult*.” Such was the turn which the envoy gave to this strange affair; but the Emperor informed of this conversation by the Gazette of Haider-abad, was exceedingly pleased with Saadet-qhan’s ingenious solutions, and he wrote him an oblig­ing letter full of applause; after which he marched straight to Haider-abad. Ab8l-hassen confounded at this sudden intel­ligence, wrote a very respectful letter to the Emperor, where he mentioned his having submitted to every condition imposed upon him by the treaty, and his readiness to execute any further commands that should be laid upon him. This letter was drawn up in a very humble style, and sent by an able speaker, who had orders to spare no submission and no supplication that could sooth the Emperor’s mind. And, in fact, he spared nothing in his power, but could not prevail on the innate malignity of the Emperor’s heart. He answered, that his reply would be delivered to Ab8l-hassen by a sword and a spear; and forgetting that himself had kept in prison his own father, his own respectful children; that he had put his brothers to death, (brothers become his prisoners of war; brothers reduced to a state of the highest distress), and had served in the same manner a poor friar, a Fakyr, for no other reason than that he seemed too much affected by his friend, the prisoner Prince’s death; unmindful that he had covered all those crimes, and all the artifices of a continual double dealing with the cloak of religious zeal (a cloak become now a public object of banter and detestation); unmindful of his having verified in his person the sentence of the Holy Book: You recommend virtue to others, and neglect it yourself; he published a mani­festo, setting forth what he called Ab8l-hassen’s crimes. The purport was, “That although the life of that wretched was one continual scene of shocking shameful actions, nevertheless it became proper to mention one in a hundred, and to shew a Aoreng-zib’s manifesto against the King of Hai­der-abad. sample out of a heap. That, first of all, he had appointed for his Prime Minister an infidel, a pagan, a man equally crue, and covetous, who carried an iron rod over the heads of so many Séyds, so many Shehs, so many Musulmen, so many venerable learned men. That he was publicly addicted to all kinds of lusts, even to those of the most ugly and unnatural kind. That his days and nights were spent in drinking and in a crapulous debauchery, that had disabled him from distin­guishing Paganism from Musalmanism, oppression from justice, and profligacy from piety and good morals. That he had of late entered into strict connections with that Western Pagan, Simb-ha the Marhatta, to whom he had very lately sent one lac of H8ns*, notwithstanding the exhortations and representations of a number of grave religious men that had been sent him to put a stop to those connections, and to recall him from an alliance so repugnant to the Word of God. That all the effect produced by those remonstrances, was only to put him upon precautioning himself, by filling his ears with the cotton of pride and neglect, and by addicting his time to a course of crapule and debauchery against the remorses of conscience and the thoughts of eternity.”

“A fine thought this! and a curious expedient!”

Such a manifesto having convinced Ab8l-hassen that there were no hopes left of pacification, he turned his views towards making a proper defence; and he sent orders to his bravest Generals, Sherze-qhan, Sheh-minhadj, and Mustepha-qhan, alias Abdol-rezac, the Larian, to be upon their guard, and to fight the enemy. The Emperor meanwhile being arrived within two days’ journey of Haider-abad, thought proper to encamp; when some troops of the enemy’s having just shewn themselves, returned to their main, which was at a great distance from the Imperial army. However, even the efforts of that whole army of theirs could make no great impression upon the Imperialists, who were ten times their number, and furnished with an immense quantity of artillery and stores. But whilst the Emperor was encamped at two days’ journey from Haider-abad, news came that Sheab-eddin, alias the victorious Ghazi-eddin-qhan, who after the con­quest of Bidjap8r had been detached to besiege the fortress of Hibra-him-gur, was coming to the presence, in compliance with an Imperial command, after having sent forward a golden key, with a relation of the capture of that fortress. At these news the Emperor decamped, and marching directly, he took post within one coss of the fortress of Golconda. On his arrival, the Siege of Gol­conda, by Aoreng-zib. Imperialists were attacked by the Haider-abadians, who after having performed as much as could be expected from their small numbers, retired again to their camp, at a distance from the Imperialists. Ghazi-eddin-qhan, arriving after this engagement, was preposed to the operations of the siege. He ordered mines to be sunk, dam-damas, or lofty cavaliers of earth and timber, to be raised, and trenches to be dug; so that the business of killing and wounding was regularly established. It was on this occasion that Abed-qhan, father to Ghazi-eddin-qhan, on passing by a mosque, where the holy words, “God’s Victorious Lion,” were engraven*, attempted to efface them with the point of his spear, and directly had his hand carried off by a canon-ball; a wound of which he languished two days, and which carried him at last to the dreary desert of Nothingness. Meanwhile, and whilst the siege was vigorously pushed forwards, Ab8l-hassen, who had always experienced Soltan-muazzem’s commiseration and lenity, applied again to that Prince; and after having opened his way by a respectful message and several rich presents, he requested him to intercede again in his behalf with the Soltan-muaz­zem, eldest son to the Emperor, is disgraced for attempting to manage a peace between the Emperor and the besieged King. Emperor, and to supplicate His Majesty to forgive his crimes and misdemeanors, imputed or real. The Prince himself, who saw with a jealous eye the honor which the capture of such a fortress would confer both on Azem-shah, his younger brother, and on Ghazi-eddin-qhan, his favorite, was willing to snatch so much glory out of their hands, by precluding their further progresses by a sudden peace with the Haider-abadian King. He therefore kept some correspondence with the besieged; but this intention of his having been soon perceived by the Prince Azem-shah, by his favorite, Ghazi-eddin-qhan, and by some other Lords as great time-servers as himself, they joined their concerns together, and made such a report of that correspondence to the Emperor, as intirely alienated his mind from his eldest son, from his learned consort, N8r-en-nessa-begum*, and from all the officers personally attached to them. Unfortunately for these disconsolate persons, there happened just at this time an event that totally estranged the father’s mind: The superintendent of S8ltan-muazzem’s household, as well as the superintendent of the women’s carriages and quarter, joined together to represent to the Prince, that the besiegers being so very forward, and making continual sorties, it was to be feared lest they should some day or other turn their steps towards the quarter of the Prince’s consort, it being at such a distance from the army, and thereby fully the lucid eye-ball of the Imperial honor. The Prince answered the request, by ordering the Princess’s tents, with all those of the ladies, to be brought nearer to the head-quarters, and of course nearer the besieged. So small a matter as this was taken up by Azem-shah and by his favorite, as well as by their whole party, as a mighty object. They gave notice to the Emperor that the Prince, who had this longwhile entered into connections with the besieged, was taking measures to retire with his family within the fortress; and the Emperor, who prided in his keenness of understanding and penetration, swallowed such a coarse report, without ever reflecting that if the Prince was really in such a criminal corrspondence with the besieged King, he had no need of shutting himself up with him; he had only to send for the enemy’s army of observation, and after join­ing it with his own troops, to fall at once upon the Imperialists. Such as was this report, it made a deep impression upon the Emperor’s mind, and it kindled his resentment into a flame; and as the Prince’s two principal officers had been of his own training and recommending, and he reckoned on their being still attached more particularly to their ancient master, he sent for them in secret, and put an infinity of questions to each of them apart. These were the superintendent of the Prince’s private apartments, and the Eunuch Quoadja-abdol-mucarem. Promises, threats, lofty tone of voice, soothing expressions—all was made use of, and produced nothing. Both those men agreed in answer­ing separately, “That they knew no other intention in the Prince, but that of obtaining a pardon for Ab8l-hassen, and making his peace; or at least of engaging him to surrender the fortress upon terms; by either of which operations, he expected to reap much honor and glory for himself. They added, that being acquainted with nothing more, and firmly believing the Prince to be inca­pable of what was imputed to his charge, they could not think of joining his accusers in a self-evident calumny.” The unani­mous answers of these two men, and their firm countenances and tone of voice, did not make any impression upon the Emperor’s obdurate heart, and rivetted suspicions. Sending for the Imperial Prince, who was a man of so ripe an age*, and of so much merit, and moreover his own eldest son, he ordered him into a rigorous confinement, as we have already mentioned. The Prince’s learned and faithful consort, their children, his family, eunuchs, favorites and dependants, not one of whom would quit his master, were all dragged with insult and ignominy, vexed in a variety of manners, and kept in close confinement for a num­ber of years together. The Emperor confiscated all his equi­page, which he joined to his own, degraded him from his military rank of forty thousand horse, broke and disbanded his Brigade of seven thousand effective troopers, with each of them two and three horses, and resumed his Djaghirs, or appanages, which he gave in payment to his troops. It was remarked that, The Emperor imprisons his eldest son. on the first day, his order was to confine the Prince’s consort, without touching her property. Two days after, the order was altered; and a certain decrepit eunuch, very ugly, very choleric, and very unguarded in his expressions, was sent with orders to take away the Princess, just in the dress he should find her; in which condition he was to carry her with contempt and ignominy into a tent just big enough for the prisoners, and there she was to be close confined, after having been deprived of all her clothes, furniture, and jewels, not excepting those she might be found to wear actually; and those were expressly restricted to those at her arms, and ears, or over her clothes*. The eunuch having spoken roughly to the Princess, the latter, without losing her temper, cast a disdainful look at him from head to foot, and said: “I look upon the Emperor to be my father. These jewels, these honors, this respect are all of his own bestowing. Let him take them back again; I have no objections. But how can it become thee to talk to me in that new manner?” The eunuch having taken fire at this language, the Prince’s sister, then present, interceded for the prisoner. But he paid no attention to her intreaties; and he ordered his prey to be carried away, directing that she should receive no more victuals and no more clothes than what were absolutely necessary. The Prince himself underwent a similar treatment, and it became daily more rigorous. After a length of time he received a message, advising him to confess his crimes and to shew his repentance, that his numberless sins and misdemeanors might receive the Imperial pardon. The Prince, shocked to hear the word, crime, denied his having been guilty of any; and he answered, “That although it was true that he must be guilty Noble answer of the Imperial Prince. of a variety of transgressions in the sight of an all-perfect God, and of course in the sight of his father, who was His shadow, and His representative on earth, yet that he was so fortunate, as not to perceive in himself any such crime as should excite so important a confession; and the more so, as in fact he was not conscious of having committed any.” This answer produced nothing but an addition of severity in the Emperor, and an addition of ill usage to the Prince. He was denied the privilege of having his head shaved, his beard trimmed, his nails paired; he was debarred from drinking cool water, eating warm bread*, and wearing good clothes. A principal eunuch of N8r-en-nessa’s was also confined, and his property confiscated; and to make him confess the charges brought against the Prince and Princess, he was put to the rack, and for some time was tormented in a variety of manners, but without it being possible to bring any thing out of his mouth but encomiums on his mistress and master, and complaints of the Emperor’s unmerited severity. The Emperor, hearing that his case was become dangerous, and that he could bear the rack no more, ordered him to be dismissed. Mirza-shukur-ollah, better known in the world under the name of Shaker-qhan, maternal uncle to the Princess, was involved in her disgrace, and confined, together with three or four eunuchs more. The latter were tormented in a variety of manners, and on their confessing nothing to the purpose, they were dismissed. As to the different species of miseries suffered by the two illustrious prisoners and their families, they are more numerous and various than our imagination can bear, and our pen can describe.