government spared no effort to convince the Czar of their entire innocence of the slightest participation in the recent occurrences which had terminated so fatally at Tehran. M. Malzoff was able to testify to the same purport, and the British envoy was entreated to request the Minister of his Government at the court of Russia to add his assurances to those of the persons mentioned. In addition to this, it was determined to send an ambassador charged with full powers to offer any reparation that might be demanded by the Czar. But this embassy was looked upon as a service of the greatest danger. The Persians believed that the Czar would very probably exact life for life, and none of them at first cared to act the part of Curtius on the occasion. At length Kosroo Meerza, a son of the crown-prince, was selected for filling the post of the Shah's representative, and he accordingly proceeded to Petersburg. The demands of the Czar were regulated by the exigencies of the situation in which Russia was then placed, rather than by the enormity of the crime which had been committed at Tehran. The imperial armies had sustained reverses on the Danube, and it was feared that Persia,[1] if pushed too
- ↑ M. Fonton states, at page 404 of La Russie dans I'Asie Mineure: "Les embarras du moment s'aggravèrent encore par une démarche précipitée du consul de Russie à Tebriz : cédant aux insinuations des Anglais, il avait quitté son poste sans en avoir reçu l'ordre." It would be more in accordance with facts if he had said that, "yielding to his own fears, M. Ambourger had quitted his post." The same author goes on to state that, on the receipt of the news by Abbass Meerza of the defeat of the Turks by the Russians at Akhaltsikh, the Persian prince assumed a more humble tone towards General Paskewitch. "Il fit répandre le bruit qu'au cas où les intrigues de ses frères amèneraient une collision, il chercherait avec les siens refuge et protection auprès du genéral-en-chef Russe. Tout sa cour prit en même temps le deuil à l'occasion de l'assassinat de Téhéran. Cette demonstration fut bientôt suivie d'une demarche plus significative encore. Ali Yusbachi, l'un des confidens d'Abbass Mirza, vint à Tiflis; il exprima, au nom de son
