either judgment or abilities, not all the services which Nadir had rendered to the State would have sufficed to make it safe for him to supplant the family which were considered, and are by many Persians still considered, to be the Agas, or masters, of the country. Even when Tahmasp, by his errors and incapacity, had given Nadir the opportunity of dethroning him, the wary general did not yet venture himself to take the vacant seat. The infant son of the late king was put up as a puppet, under the guardianship of the general, and he continued to be the titular Shah until such time as the new victories of Nadir had given that ambitious man a surer hold on the affections of the army and on the fears of the nation. Even then his characteristic caution was not lost sight of. Instead of openly seizing the regal power, he preferred the manner of acquiring it by the consent of the deputies of the people, whom he assembled on the plain of Moghan.
There, like Cæsar, he went through the form of refusing a proffered crown, which he at last agreed to accept, as it were against his inclination, and solely for the public good. This sagacious politician made it a rule, while usurping the possessions of monarchs who were unable to hold them, to ally his own family with those whose descent and position commanded the deference of men. His eldest son was married to the sister of Shah Tahmasp. His second son espoused the daughter of the Emperor of Delhi, with whose hand he obtained the sovereignty of all the provinces of that empire which lay to the west of the Indus. His nephew contracted an alliance with the daughter of the King of Bokhara, the descendant of Genghis Khan.
