Page:The lives of celebrated travellers (Volume 2).djvu/318

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into his house, and, binding a rope about one of his arms, compelled him to serve them for a guide until they had regained their path, when our traveller took care to reward him for his trouble. Shortly after this two of his muleteers deserted; and in the evening, while their beasts were at pasture, a wolf of very extraordinary size, of which there were great numbers in the mountains of Mazenderan, made his appearance, but was driven off by the guard, though not before he had killed a cow. Pallas observes that the wolf is exceedingly timid in summer; but an instance of its courage during the warm months, not unlike the above, occurred to that traveller in Siberia; and the wolves of Burgundy and the Vosges have the reputation, I believe, of being sufficiently ferocious throughout the year. Next morning they overtook a small detachment of soldiers, whose commanding officer, observing that they were pursuing the same route, politely offered his service as a convoy; which being readily accepted, they pursued their journey together.

In this way they proceeded for some time; but the officer being at length compelled to take a different direction, granted Hanway at parting a guard of ten men, who, however, very soon deserted him. Nevertheless he succeeded, after much fatigue and difficulty, in reaching Astrabad, whence the rebels had recently been dislodged. The fate of the insurgent chief excited his compassion. Upon the news of the defeat of his party he had been seized by the demoniacal slaves who now gained the ascendant, who, having cut holes in his flesh, in which they set lighted candles, thus paraded him naked through the market-place, until he dropped down dead through loss of blood. Our traveller, immediately upon his arrival, presented to Behbud Khan, the new governor, the decree which he had obtained of the shah, and received a promise that it should be fulfilled to the letter. This man appeared to have been designed