FATE OF MAHOMED YOOSUF. 461 one of these conditions was, that Herat should thence- forth be independent. It was to be governed thereafter by an Affghan Prince, and the selection of the new governor became an object of importance to the Persian court. By the 8th article of the Treaty of Peace, the Persian government had engaged to set at liberty without ransom, immediately after the exchange of the ratifica- tions of the Treaty, all prisoners taken during the opera- tions of the Persian troops in Affghanistan. Amongst those prisoners was Mahomed Yoosuf, the nephew and heir of the late Prince Kamran of Herat. Prince Mahomed Yoosuf had defended Herat against the troops of the Shah, and had been sent as a prisoner to Tehran in the spring of the year 1856. There he had been brought into the Shah's presence with a rope round his neck, and after having been reproached with his so-called rebellious conduct, had been pardoned by the king and set free within the walls of the capital. But it was not the inten- tion of the Persian government to permit the independent Sedozye prince to return to his principality, and they took advantage of a warning regarding the contents of the coming treaty to make away with Mahomed Yoosuf whilst he should still be in the power of the Shah. On the 10th of April, 1857, a courier arrived at Tehran from Paris, bearing despatches in which Ferrukh Khan informed his government of the terms of the treaty which he was about to conclude ; and as the signed agree- ment would follow in the course of a few days, the Sedr- Azem had no time to lose in deciding on the fate of Mahomed Yoosuf. His Highness was aware that that Affghan prince would feel that, should he recover his power, he would owe its possession to the measures taken
