hands of the Toorkmuns of Merv, and I write in the hope that I may be able to do something for you. If you will write me a letter to care of the British Agent, Mushudd, I will do anything in my power for you. I send you a little money, and if you want more I will endeavour to send some to you. Hoping I may be able to do something for you

This letter I gave to the Surteep, and he promised to forward it by some Tukkehs who were about to leave Surrukhs for Merv; but I regret to say, though I left orders at Mushudd on my starting for the Caspian, that any reply was to be sent to me, I never received any while in Persia, and thought, of course, Abbass Khan had probably never sent it. But it may be interesting to my readers to learn the after-fate of my letter. It appears that it was sent to Merv, and it duly reached the hands of the poor devil for whom it was meant (and whose name, I think, I afterwards heard was Ivanoff), and he replied to it. The reply was sent by the Surteep to Mushudd, and instead of reaching me fell somehow into the hands of the aged Governor of Khorassan, whom I have aptly named Zaeef-oo-Dowlah.

To this old gentleman's mind it at once suggested itself that here was an opportunity of showing what a sharp lookout he kept on the frontier, and at the same time making a little favour with the Russian Embassy. He therefore sent it to Tehran, no doubt with such comment as his feeble mind and his zeal in the Russian cause suggested. Here poor Ivanoff's simple reply seems to have been bandied about from the Secretary for Foreign Affairs to H.I.M. the King of Kings, to the Envoy and Plenipotentiary of H.I.M. the Tsar of All the Russias, and thence to the Envoy and Plenipotentiary of Her Britannic Majesty, till, like a snowball, it had

assumed in diplomatic minds quite serious dimen

sions.

By the time it reached England no doubt the snowball had reached alarming proportions, twisted and misrepresented by the crooked minds of Persian diplomats, and garnished with crafty innuendoes from facilely-lying Russian pens as it had been; as it had been ; and naturally I was asked to explain.

Of course there could be but one reply. The reader is in possession of the facts connected with this occurrence, and will therefore understand how it was I could say nothing but that my feelings of humanity had been too many for me.

I am free to confess I was annoyed at first at finding even such a trivial circumstance being made the subject of inquisition. It is not for me to cavil. Yet I may trace the spirit which prompted it to its real origin. I blame no individual or individuals, but I do unhesitatingly blame the mercenary and selfish spirit which has led the people of England to dictate, for the last ten years, a foreign policy unworthy of their great name, and most unfitting the future of a people who wish to remain great-a policy which, inculating tame submission to all slights and all insults, has made the continued application of the proud boast "Civis Romanus sum" to English people a mockery.

However this may be, I need hardly say the explanation I was enabled to offer was deemed by Her Majesty's Government quite satisfactory, and I therefore now only pray that poor Ivanoff may some day come to know that my offer of help was after all not mere empti

ness.

On the 29th the relieved guard left for Mushudd. We got to Dowlutabad about noon, and halting a

couple of hours, en route, got to Ak Durbund on the morning of the 30th. I regret that I did not time this march, as I could not have believed camels could get along so quickly. It is evident if you want a Persian to progress quickly, you have only got to put the "Khauf-y-Toorkmun "behind him.

However, once inside the hills they did not seem inclined to keep up the pace, so, inducing Mahamad Khan to send some men with me, I got to Robat-yMai on the 31st, and to Mushudd on the 1st by the same road as that by which we had marched to Surrukhs. I had tried to get them to take me straight from Mushudd to Kullat-y-Nadir but did not succeed; I give, however, a description of the road in the Appendix.

*The fear of the Toorkmun.

CHAPTER II.

MUSHUDD TO DURRAGUZ.

ON my return to Mushudd I obtained quarters in a delightful garden on the south of the city, with the somewhat unpalatable name of the Bagh-y-Khoonee, or the "garden of blood,"-why so named I could not ascertain. I took up my abode in a tower of the form known in Persia as "Koolah-Furrungee;" I suppose from its resemblance to the immortal black hat of happier scenes. This consisted of an octagonal tower of two stories; the lower or ground floor I made into a store room, occupied the second floor in the day, and slept on the top at night, and was very comfortable.

These towers, with a few alterations and additions, can be made very habitable for Europeans, and I should always recommend their being used when available.

Though I applied for permission to go to Kullat-yNadir directly on my return, it took a week before I could get it, during which the time hung rather heavily on my hands, as eating grapes and sleeping begins to pall after a bit.

There was a very decided attempt made to get me to go and see Mahamad Ayoob Khan, a rebel son of the Amir of Kabul, and own brother to the gallant Yakoob whom that wily potentate had got safely in prison. Under other circumstances I should have been glad to have seen Ayoob, but I thought that with the facili

ties for the manufacture of falsehoods which abound all over Asia, it might cause some embarrassment, and give the Amir another grievance with which to hide his own treacherous designs. Therefore I declined. I, however, often met his men about, and once I came across Ayoob himself, whose salute I duly returned. He seemed half inclined to call on me to stop, but seeing that I did not encourage the idea he desisted.

"More Persico" Ayoob was well treated at Mushudd, and had quarters and a pension of 4,000 tomams a year assigned to him. The fact is, the Persians always do, and always will, hanker after Herat, and so they are ever ready to receive any fugitive chief from that country in the hopes of making use of him at a future date, as a stalking-horse for their own purposes. In addition to Ayoob, they have now got a son of Sooltan Jan's called-I think-Shah Naroz Khan, at Tehran, and a grandson of Yar Mahommed at Birjund, any of whom they are ready to play off against the Afghans, and any of whom, moreover, are quite ready to be played

off.

I got away at last from Mushudd with great difficulty, on the 7th August, but only rode out to the tomb of Khajeh Rubbee, about four miles to the north, as I wished to get everything right before starting, and also to see this celebrated mausoleum. There is nothing peculiar in the style of architecture of this tomb, which is a square building with a single-domed roof, but the enamelled tiles with which it is covered outside, and probably lined inside. The place is so overgrown with trees that no thoroughly good view of it is obtainable, and it is only by walking round and round it, and making a whole out of the glimpses obtained of it through the foliage, that one can understand the plan of the