fellow-labourer to the punishment due to his own iniquity, and the
sentence was executed on the instant.

His conscience told him that a man like him was unworthy to administer
justice to his fellow-citizens. A pilgrimage to Mecca would now no
longer suffice to appease his remorse; his ambition told him it could be
lulled by nothing but luxury and splendour. By severe exactions, he
amassed large sums; and by gifts contrived to gain over the most
influential members of the divan; he thus got appointed Khan of
Schamachia, and, from the modest distinctions of the judicature, he
passed to the turbulent honours of military power--a change by no means
rare in Persia.

Abbas was then collecting all his forces to march against the province
of Kandahar, and to reduce the Afghans, who have since ruled over his
descendants. In the battles fought on this occasion, Bebut the Ambitious
gained the signal favour of one equally ambitious; for Abbas was an
indefatigable conqueror, whom fortune, with all her favours, could never
satisfy.

The Khan of Schamachia was so thoroughly devoted to his master, so
blindly subservient to his will, that he presently became his confidant.
He was the very man for the favour of a despot; he had no opinion of his
own, and could always find good reasons for those to which he assented.
This, in the eyes of Abbas, constituted an excellent counsellor.

The monarch triumphed. Conqueror of the Kurdes, the Georgians, the
Turks, and the Afghans, he re-entered Ispahan in triumph. He had already
made it the capital of his dominions, and now proposed to himself to
enjoy there quietly, in the midst of his glory, the fruits of his vast