his measures so well that, without any blood having been shed, Lutf'ali was driven to seek safety by fleeing from his own camp with a handful of men, and retreating to the shore of the Persian Gulf. There, by the aid of an Arab chief, he raised a small force with which he appeared before the walls of Sheeraz. The deeds of heroic daring ascribed in Persian story to Rustem and the fabulous heroes of old were now surpassed by the real achievements of Lutf'ali Khan. Aga Mahomed sent a force under one of his generals to the support of Haji Ibraheem; but Lutf'ali, with his band of Arabs, attacked, and after a severe struggle put to flight, this numerous corps. The Kajar prince, on hearing of this defeat, sent another army against his rival, whose troops it outnumbered in the proportion of ten to one. Lutf'ali left his entrenchments on the approach of the enemy, and by his example so animated his men that they again gained a complete victory over the Kajars.
Aga Mahomed now advanced in person at the head of his main body, which was so numerous that we are told the soldiers of Lutf'ali were to it scarcely more than as one to a hundred. The Zend chief attacked and defeated the advanced guard of the enemy, and following up his advantage in the dead of night, he carried confusion and dismay into the camp of the Kajars. He had penetrated to the royal pavilion, where Aga Mahomed awaited him at the head of his guards, when he was assured that the Kajar prince had fled, and entreated not to permit his soldiers to plunder the treasure which his tents contained. Aga Mahomed awaited in calmness the approach of dawn, when the muezzin, by calling the soldiers to prayer, assured them that their king had never deserted
