he was beset by assassins who at once put an end to his existence. Whilst the confusion consequent upon the loss of its commander still reigned in the Russian camp, it was attacked and broken up by the Persian troops, and the squadron which lay in the harbour once more put out to sea.
We have thus seen the reopening of friendly intercourse or hostile operations between Persia, under Fetteh Ali Shah, and England and Russia. We have next to record a further interchange of peaceful relations between that king and France. We are informed that in the year of the Hegira 1216,[1] an Armenian merchant, who came to Tehran from Baghdad, professed to be the bearer of credentials from the Government of the Emperor Napoleon. But no one at Tehran could decipher the French characters in which the letters were traced, and consequently the soi-disant envoy had to submit to the neglect from which his appearance and following were not sufficient to rescue him. No doubt, however, could be felt as to the authentic nature of the mission of the next French envoy, whose coming was announced to the court of Persia. But this envoy, who had been sent from Paris, in consequence of a wish expressed on the Shah's part to the French ambassador at Constantinople that he might receive the support of France,[2] was arrested near the Persian frontier, by the agents of the Pasha of Byazeed,[3] and was conducted to that town, where he was for eight months confined in a dry subterranean cistern. The Pasha of Byazeed died at the end of that time, and the news of the victory of Austerlitz, which penetrated into
