Two days afterwards I heard there was some trouble at the Palace. I do not know all the details, for, as I said, news from the Palace filters out slowly and imperfectly. The Amîr was depressed, I take it, by his long and tedious illness, for he called his sons to him and told them that he had only some ten years to live; and that in all probability neither Habibullah nor any other of his sons would succeed him. Ishak, on the one hand, and Ayoub on the other, were candidates for the Throne, and it behoved the Princes, his sons, to be amicable one towards the other: a bundle of branches bound together was strong, but taken separately they could be easily broken. The sun began to grow powerful, and the snow melted rapidly. Fires and the sandali became unnecessary; one had only to sit in the sun if one felt the cold. On March the 10th it was comparatively warm. As it was my birthday, I went in the afternoon to the Palace to visit the Amîr. His Highness was at dinner. He sent me some grapes, and I sat in one of the side rooms, or alcoves, and waited. After dinner I talked to His Highness. He told me he was better, and could walk a little. He was not so thin as he had been. After talking to me for some time, he ordered a beautiful little Kataghani horse, brown with black points, to be brought from the stables, and asked me to accept it. [Sidenote: Sabbath: the Amîr’s Decision.] Shortly after this, the interesting Hindustani Interpreter--the Gnat--endeavoured to prejudice the two English engineers, Stewart and Myddleton, in His Highness’s eyes. He reported to Sirdar Usuf Khan, the Amîr’s uncle, who, nominally, superintended the workshops, that the Englishmen, though Christians, did no work on Friday. He being the only Interpreter they had, they rode to my house one evening to inform me. I directed the Armenian to write to His Highness and explain that the Engineers had given up _their_ Sabbath to His Highness’s service; had His Highness any objection to their keeping the Mahomedan Sabbath instead of their own. The Amîr answered that he had not the slightest objection; and he wrote to the Sirdar that it was folly to expect the men to work every day in the week. The Sirdar was a courtly old gentleman, but in the Shops there were constant frictions. He no more understood the nature of an English workman than he understood Physiology or any other Science. I think Sir Salter--then Mr.--Pyne was also somewhat of a puzzle to him. Pyne has strong characteristics and decided views, and the Sirdar Sahib had not the former, though he assumed the latter, and on a subject in which he was but ill informed. When the thaw commenced, the Engineers endeavoured to make up for time lost during the frost by frequently working all night. There was a certain amount of work to be got through by the Mahomedan New Year’s Day, in order that a good show of arms and ammunition could be laid before the Amîr.