I pulled on my boots, threw on a postîn, and in a very few seconds was in the porch. Quick as I had been, I found my horse saddled and bridled. I rode rapidly along the dark deserted streets, slippery with wet, the puddles glistening in the light of an occasional lamp: a soldier was in front and a soldier behind me. Then I heard the clatter and splash of other horses, and looking back saw the Armenian advancing rapidly, accompanied by the soldier who had called him. This was somewhat of a relief to me, for I did not know the soldiers, and the Armenian was always a protection. I guessed now that the Amîr was ill, and that the time had arrived when he wished to undergo European medical treatment. Presently we arrived at the Erg Palace, and, leaving our horses at the gate, were at once admitted by the sentry. We hurried across the gardens to the Amîr’s Pavilion. Entering at once we passed through the Octagonal Hall, and in the small room opposite the entry I saw the Amîr lying back on the pillows of his couch. He was rolling his head from side to side and groaning in great pain. Malek, the Page, was kneeling on the couch rubbing His Highness’s knee. The two eldest sons, the Princes Habibullah and Nasrullah, were in the room with the Amîr, as were Perwana Khan, Jan Mahomed Khan, the Dabier-ul-Mulk, Mir Ahmad Shah--in fact, most of the principal officers of the Kingdom who were in Kabul at the time. These were kneeling around the room. Everyone had a look of strained and anxious attention. It was obvious that the Amîr was very ill, and I said in English to the Armenian, “Enquire if His Highness wishes to place himself under my medical care.” His Highness, turning his head and looking at me, said, “Bâli! I wish it.” I laid down my turban, removed the spurs from my boots, and set to work to examine His Highness’s condition. [Sidenote: Illness of the Amîr.] He had acute gouty inflammation of the right shoulder, elbow, wrist, and knee, and shooting neuralgic pains in the left calf. There was coarse crepitation of the left axillary base, with cough; some enlargement of the heart; extreme vesical irritability, and faucial congestion; and albuminuria to the extent roughly of a fifth. His temperature was 102 degrees Fahr.: the pulse weak; and I was informed that he had had no sleep for several nights. I sat down a minute to consider what I would do. The condition was serious: for the Amîr had been ill, on and off, to my knowledge, since September the 9th, and possibly longer. The medical treatment to which he had been subjected by the Hakims for his complaint was, to my mind, unscientific, and even dangerous. He had been bled, I was informed, nearly to faintness, and leeched freely several times: he had been purged violently and often: and his gouty foot had been plunged into iced water. What else was done I do not know; but this was enough.