security was in our supposed poverty, for in near three weeks distress, I durst not show a single piece of gold, much less acknowledge that I had saved any money.’ He made up his mind to leave Astrabad as soon as possible, and, having obtained an acknowledgment of the value of his goods, at last set out with an escort of about two dozen armed men, under the command of a Hadji, or a holy man, who had made a pilgrimage to Mecca. Needless to say his escort were a pack of rogues, and it was by sheer good luck, and at some risk, that, at last, he fell in with some officers of the Shah, who were recruiting for forces wherewith to re-conquer Astrabad. They helped him to horses, although he complained of their quality. He got along somehow, although he lost his servants, and at last he reached Langarood, where the renegade Captain Elton lived, seven weeks after he had left Astrabad, and was received by Elton with open arms. Here he stayed some days to recruit, and then pushed on to Reshd. A few days more of journeying, and he fell in with the Shah’s camp, but failed to have an interview with that exalted potentate. Still his case was brought before Nadir Shah, and, the bill Hanway had received from Mohammed Hassan being produced as evidence, a decree was issued ‘that I should give the particulars of the loss to Behbud Khan, the Shah’s general at Astrabad, who had orders to deliver to me whatever part of the goods might possibly be found, and to restore them in kind, and the deficiency to be paid out of the sequestered estates of the rebels to the last denier. This was not quite the thing which I wished for, because it laid me under a necessity of returning to that wretched place, Astrabad; however, I could not but acknowledge the highest obligation for so signal a mark of justice and clemency.’