band of Toorkmans carried himself and
his mother away into slavery. The latter
died ; but young Nadir escaped after four
years of servitude, and, having stolen a flock
of sheep, fled into the mountains of
Khorassan, and adopted the life of a robber. His
reputation for daring and bravery soon
spread abroad over the country. In seventeen
hundred and fourteen, he received the
command of a large force from the governor
of his native province, with which he
repulsed an invasion of the Toorkmans.

At this time Persia was groaning under
the yoke of the conquering Affghans, and the
rightful Shah was a fugitive in the mountains
which border on the southern coast of the
Caspian Sea.

The intrepid robber-chief, therefore,
offered his services to his unfortunate
sovereign, and received the command of his
armies. He now displayed most extraordinary
ability, and, in two years, had conquered
the Affghans in several hard-fought battles,
thus completely ridding Persia from foreign
invasion. Shah Tahmasp was restored to the
throne, with the powerful Nadir as general
of his armies. But the ambition of the
robber could never rest satisfied with the
position of a subject. In seventeen hundred
and thirty-two he dethroned the Shah, and
in seventeen hundred and thirty-six he was
proclaimed sovereign of Persia by a vast
assemblage of chiefs on the plains of Mogan,
near the shores of the Caspian.

This extraordinary man was rude and
illiterate, but possessed a magical influence
over the soldiers, and an intuitive instinct
which seemed to point out to him the exact
moment for action. He was six feet high,
with round shoulders, and large expressive
eyes fixed under a broad expanse of forehead.
His voice was thundering, and a terrible
battle-axe was his favourite weapon.

Having defeated the Turks, and put down
every attempt at revolt amongst the restless
tribes of the mountains of Persia, Nadir
Shah turned an eye of longing cupidity on
the rich but now almost powerless Indian
empire of the Great Mogul.

The empire of the Moguls in India, which
had been founded by the brave and learned
Baber, most charming of autobiographers,
had risen to the height of its splendour
during the reign of Aurungzebe, who died in
seventeen hundred and seven, and at the
time of Nadir's rise was sunk to the lowest
ebb of degradation. Mohammed Shah, the
reigning Great Mogul, passed his time in
sensual pleasures in the palace of Delhi,
while the Mahratta tribes plundered his
southern frontier, and the Sikhs and Rohillas
assumed virtual independence in the north
and west. One of the great omras, or lords,
who enjoyed the title of Nizam-ool-Moolk
(regulator of the state), governed the
important province of the Deccan; while
Devran Khan, the chief adviser of the Mogul,
exposed his pusillanimous weakness by bribing
the Mahrattas with large sums to desist
from their incursions.

The rich and splendid city of Delhi, the
centre of all this pitiable weakness, was
founded by the Mogul Shah Jehan, in sixteen
hundred and thirty-one, on the west side of
the river Jumna, in the midst of a fertile
plain. The palace, surrounded by a wall
thirty feet high, of reddish stone, is built
along the banks of the river, with gardens
planted with orange groves and apricot trees
surrounding it. The Dewan-i-khass, or hall
of audience, was the chief pride of the palace,
and an inscription proclaimed, " If there be
an elysium on earth, it is this— this is it!"
In its palmy days it contained the famous
throne which stood on six legs of massy gold
set with rubies, emeralds, and diamonds,
while golden peacocks covered with precious
stones and pearls formed its canopy. The
ceiling of this superb hall consisted of satin
canopies, and the walls were hung with silken
tapestries embroidered with gold. Here the
Great Mogul, surrounded by omras in
gorgeous dresses, gave audiences to governors
and ambassadors. On these state occasions
he was attired in white satin covered with
gold embroidery, a turban of cloth of gold
surmounted by the figure of a heron whose
feet were covered with large diamonds, and a
collar of enormous pearls.

The other chambers of the palace were no
less magnificent, and the vaults were filled
with countless treasure. The houses of the
rich and luxurious omras beautified the two
principal streets of the city, but the houses
of the poorer classes were mean, and thatched
with straw.

It can be no matter for wonder that these
vast treasures were coveted by the victorious
Nadir, and that the Great Mogul and his
effeminate Court should have been suddenly
startled, in the midst of their pleasures, by
the news that a Persian army was on the
frontier.

The detention of an ambassador gave a
pretext for invasion. Having captured
Candahar, Nadir invested the city of Cabul,
which was bravely defended by a chief named
Sherzih Khan. But his applications for aid
were neglected by the Court of Delhi, and,
after a month's siege, Cabul was taken by
storm, in June, seventeen hundred and thirty-eight.
The Persian army then advanced
through the narrow mountainous passes
between Cabul and Peshawur, and Nadir
succeeded in bribing the warlike Affghan tribes
to remain neutral. He thus conducted his
forces in safety through those dangerous
defiles, and captured Peshawur. Having
surmounted this difficulty, the invader led
his army across the Indus at Attock, by
means of two iron chains, to which inflated
skins were made fast, and covered with
planks, thus forming a bridge of boats.

The Court of the Mogul was at length