426 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. and exultation he thought that, under such circumstances, he might afford to gratify the national wish for the pos- session of Herat. In the month of January, 1853, an agreement had been concluded between the British minister at Tehran and the prime minister of Persia, by which the Shah's government had engaged not to send troops to Herat, unless troops from the direction of Cabul, or Kandahar, or other foreign country should invade that principality. In direct contravention of this arrangement, the Sedr- Azem now instructed the Prince of Khorassan to march upon Herat ; thereby affording to Great Britain an un- questionable casus belli. The expedition to Herat was undertaken partly in order to gratify the national Persian desire for the pos- session of that place, and partly in the hope that success in the direction of Affghanistan would afford Persia advantages by the sacrifice of which reparation might afterwards be made to the English Government. Herat, after the death of Yar Mahomed Khan, had fallen under the sway of that ruler's son, Syd Mahomed ; * but the new governor possessed none of the striking ability which had characterized his father, and his subjects had soon become disgusted with a ruler only remarkable for his cruelty and his excessive debauchery. Some of them had accordingly taken advantage of the absence of Syd Mahomed from Herat, upon an expedition against the tribe of Hezareh, to enter into negotiations with Prince Mahomed Yoosuf, the nephew and heir of Shah Kamran, and who was then a refugee at Meshed. The
- This man's name is given as Syud Mahomed in Mr. KAYE'S History
of the Sepoy War, but it is more correctly written Syd, or Cid, Mahomed.
