having escaped so many perils by land and sea, he narrowly escaped perishing by a common accident. One of his muskets went off, and, discharging its contents in the roof of the tent over his head, set the canvass on fire. Without loss of time he presented his petition to the shah, praying to be reimbursed the value of the goods forcibly seized by the rebels at Astrabad; and while waiting for Nadir's reply, enjoyed an ample opportunity, which he usefully turned to account, of observing the aspect and character of this motley, extraordinary scene. He saw the despot hemmed round by a circle of evils of his own creating, which was every moment narrowing, and threatening that terrible catastrophe which shortly afterward consummated the tyrant's fate. Every heart was bursting with indignation, and curses were struggling to every tongue for vent, against the common enemy. And could he have looked into the heart of this imperial miscreant, he would there have beheld the vulture of which that of Typhœus was but the type and shadow, feeding upon apprehensions and horrors the most fearful and odious of all earthly things.
Externally, however, the monster appeared to be the beau idéal of imperial splendour. A harem of sixty women, selected for their resplendent beauty; palaces of barbaric grandeur; horses covered with trappings set with pearls, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds of prodigious size; and an army of two hundred thousand men, to maintain which his country had been ruined, and India despoiled, according to the most moderate computation, of one hundred and seventy millions sterling. Such was his condition. Not long after his arrival Hanway obtained a decree of the shah "that the particulars of his loss should be delivered to Behbud Khan, the shah's general, now at Astrabad, who was to return such parts of the goods as could be recovered, and make up the deficiency out of the sequestered estates of the rebels."
