That Prince although completely convinced that Nizam-el-mulk was the contriver and director of this incursion, was likewise sensible how difficult it would be to punish him for such a conduct; and thinking it better to use policy, he wrote him several letters full of kindness, gave him the title of Assefdja,* raised his military grade to eight thousand horse, and flattered his pride so much, that the other resolved to come to Court. Leaving therefore his second son, Nizam-eddöulah-nasr-djung,* for his Deputy and Lieutenant in the kingdom of Decan, he set out for the capital; but the rumour of his coming being spread everywhere, Qhandö8ran hurried with all his might the agreement with the Marhattas, to prevent his having any concern in the treaty. It was stipulated that they would henceforwards approve themselves the servants of the Imperial court, and obey His Majesty’s com­mands, as well as the directions of his Ministers, without keeping up any correspondence with Nizam-el-mulk, or siding with him in any manner. This was the purport of the agreement. But the Marhatta General perceiving the pusillanimity and cowardice of the Grandees at court, and sensible of the want of discernment in the Minister, made a treaty with both parties, and kept fair with both the Court and Nizam-el-mulk. The latter being arrived at Shah-djehan-abad, on the 16th of the first Reby, in the year 1150, paid his respects to the Emperor, and about a month after, the Qhylaat of the two Governments of Malva and G8djerat were conferred on his eldest son, Ghazi-eddin-qhan, on the dismission of Djehi-sing and Badjiräo. On the Friday following, news arriving of the decease of Abdol-semed-qhan, the famous Viceroy of Lahor, a Qhylaat of consolation was bestowed on the Vezir Camer-eddin-qhan, his brother, and other Qhylaats of condolence were sent likewise to that General’s family at Lahor, together with a particular one to Zekeriah-qhan, his son, who received thereby a confirmation of the Governments of Lahor and M8ltan. At the same time Nizam-el-mulk, in obedience to the Emperor’s com­mand, marched out to chastise Badjiräo, and he advanced to Acbar-abad; and having fixed as his Deputy in that city, a rela­tion of his own, he marched to Malva by crossing the Djumna at Acbar-abad, and having passed to Atva, he recrossed that river at Calpi, and arrived in the Bundelcund, where he arrested the Radja or Prince of the country. From thence he advanced to Bhopal, which is a town of the dependency of Malva. Badjiräo, hearing of his design, came out from the Decan at the head of a mighty host, and meeting Nizam-el-mulk on the plains of that town, several bloody engagements took place; but as none of them proved decisive, the latter who now received intelligence that Nadyr-shah had invaded Hindostan, thinking the Marhattas but a small object in comparison, preferred an accommodation with Badjiräo, and leaving those enemies behind, he returned to the capital with all expedition.

Troubles and evils of this magnitude were reckoned but small objects by a set of traitorous Grandees, who intent only on ruining each other, made no account of the consequences, if they could but compass their private ends. Nor did they make any scruples, when necessary for their purpose, to shed the blood of Mussulmen, and to slaughter a whole race of Sëyds. Sëif-eddin-aaly-qhan, one of those noble persons attached to the late Abdol­lah-qhan, had, on that Vezir’s defeat, retired upon his paternal estate, where he subsisted upon a small revenue afforded by a Djaghir of Imperial gift, and a Taallook of land* which had been hereditary in his family. This slender subsistence, just enough to support life, he shared with a number of old, impotent, or ruined persons of his family and dependence, and it was this small estate that proved an eyesore to Camer-eddin-qhan, and to the T8ranians, who unable to bear the sight of a Sëyd, and cherish­ing in their bosoms an enmity to the whole race, were resolved to extirpate every relation of Hossëin-aaly-qhan’s. With this intention Camer-eddin-qhan appointed one Hushmet-qhan to the command of the checlaw or division of Soharen-poor, who had orders to take possession of, and confiscate, the lands and estates held by Sëif-eddin-aaly-qhan and the other persons and dependants of Hossëin-aaly-qhan’s family. That wretched being arrived on the spot, extended the hand of usurpation and violence on the possessions of the Prince of the children of Adam,* and wanted to deprive Sëif-eddin-aaly-qhan and those unfortunate people of that little which constituted their very subsistence. Reduced to the last extremity, and at a loss how to escape from the claws of that wretched, they, according to the sentence, Despair knows no laws, rose in their own defence, and deprived their oppressor of the garment of life. This act of necessity was highly resented by the Vezir and his brother, Azim-ollah-qhan; and those men that had put up patiently with Djan-nessar-qhan’s death, and with a miscreant Gentoo’s taking possession of a Mussulman’s consort and family; those men that had made so small account of so black a crime, and had so little sense of honour and shame, as to have not thought so much as once how to take Ruin of the town of Djan-sita. an adequate revenge for such an enormity; those very men now looked upon such an act of necessity, and the killing of Hushmet-qhan by a Sëid’s hand,* to be a flagitious affront that concerned the honour of Government, and reflected upon the unsullied character of its Ministers; and nothing now could expiate such an enormity, but spilling the blood of an illustrious Sëid, and putting to the sword a whole family of needy people. The expedition was thought of importance enough, to require no less an appointment than that of that second Aboosofian,* his own brother, Azim-ollah-qhan, who with the remains of the army of Damascus, that is, with a body of T8ranians under his com­mand, and a body of Rohilas under that of Aaly-mahmed-qhan-Rohilah, joined some other troops of Ferid-eddin-qhan, and Ozmet-ollah-qhan’s, both Sheh-zadas of Lucknow, the latter of whom was Fodjdar of M8rad-abad on the part of Camer-eddin-qhan, and they marched to destroy the nobleman in question, and all the Sëids of Barr.* Those wretches animated by a diabol­ical spirit of revenge, being arrived in that country, ranged their troops in order of battle; and Sëif-eddin-aaly-qhan on his side having put himself at the head of his dependants and kinsmen, and the few that chose to stand by him in that critical moment, both parties advanced against each other, the injured Sëid being resolved to defend his honour, life and property. He was inferior in numbers, and destitute of artillery and of some other neces­saries; nevertheless, he drew so much strength from his own despair, that he repulsed Azim-ollah-qhan, and made him lose a great deal of ground. He was even going to send this wretched with his miscreants to their destined seats at the bottom of hell, when another army of accursed Rohila Afghans made its appear­ance on the Sëid’s flank, and poured such a violent fire of musquetry and rockets, as made all those Sëids, with their Lord at their head, drink of the cup of martyrdom. After that they advanced to Djan-sitah, a town where the unfortunate Sëid had taken up his residence, as having been built and peopled by his illustrious ancestors, and listening only to the dictates of inso­lence and avidity, they plundered and sacked it, throwing them­selves on the houses of those unfortunate Sëids; nor were they ashamed to lay their prophane hands upon those chaste Sëidanee matrons that had never set a foot on a street, and to expose their nakedness* to the open air, after having covered their heads with the ashes of woe and defilement. That unfortunate town became for some days a picture of the Last Day’s desola­tion. The cries and lamentations that incessantly came from so many impotent people, striped of their all, and the screams that rose from those desolate habitations, emptied of their contents, found their way as far as the cupola of the seventh Heaven. For it is reported by persons worthy of credit, that for several days together, after the perpetration of all these enormities, such an uncommon redness overspread the horizon morning and evening, that it seemed as if the hem of tyrannical heaven had been steeped in the blood of those unfortunate people, and the eye of the day and night had been shedding tears of blood on the fate of those afflicted women. These violences exercised upon Sëids, and the consequent redness of the horizon, gave room to the con­jectures of those that were versed in history; and persons skilled in unravelling physical causes, and who, to that knowledge of times and phenomena, added an acquaintance with the niceties and particulars that are the result of the heavenly bodies, were all unanimous in affirming, that this country would infallibly be afflicted by some general massacre and a variety of miseries, as a punition for the Vezir’s blind obstinacy, and as a chastisement for the violences exercised by that accursed Azim-ollah-qhan on the descendants of the Prophet. For they affirmed that such and the like calamities had always been portended by such an extraordinary redness of the sky.