to the condition in which they had existed in the time of the Sefaveean Shahs: that is, he proposed to overrun, and to retain possession of, Herat, Merve, Balkh, Cabul, Candahar, Thibet, Kashgar and Seistan. Nor was this meant to be an idle threat; for orders were at once given for the royal forces to assemble at Tehran. These orders were punctually obeyed by all the tribes, with the exception of that of the former rebel Sadek Khan Shekaki. That chief seems never to have fully relinquished the dream of obtaining the supreme power in Persia, and he held back until the army should have quitted Tehran. One of his followers conveyed to the Shah the intelligence that it was the chiefs intention then to proclaim himself king. The royal clemency had been already stretched to the utmost limit in favour of this general, who was strongly suspected of having instigated the murder of Aga Mahomed Khan, and who had undoubtedly afforded protection to the actual assassins; and the long-pent-up flood of vengeance was now to be poured forth on the head of the infatuated rebel. He was sent for to the presence of the king, and was condemned to be bricked up in a room at Tehran, and there left to starve to death.[1]
Fetteh Ali Shah proceeded to Sebzewar and Nishapoor, where his army was engaged for some time in the
- ↑ The room in which this sentence was carried into execution is now a portion of the house provided for one of the secretaries to the British Legation at Tehran. An old servant who has lingered about the premises for the last sixty years, informed me that on the fifth day after Sadek Khan had been walled in, he was found to have pulled up the cement of the flooring of the room in his despair.
The Shah's reason for adopting this cruel mode of punishment was a superstitious dread of breaking an oath which he had formerly made, never to shed the blood of Sadek Khan.
