One day after the treaties were concluded, I heard the prime minister say, with a smile, to the Elchee, "You see, with all your European knowledge, of what consequence it is to attend to a Persian astrologer, who instructs you to fight us with our own weapons, the stars and planets." On entering Teheran, we were conducted through the streets to the house of the prime minister, Hajee Ibrahim. Here Nou Rôz Khan left us; but we were welcomed at the gate of the dwelling by several of the friends and principal members of the minister's family, and we had hardly seated ourselves, when the Hajee was announced as coming to visit his guests. My curiosity to see this extraordinary man was very great. "There must," I thought, "be something wonderful in the appearance as well as in the mind of that human being, who, by the mere force of his character, has raised himself from the rank of an humble magistrate in the city of Shiraz, to be a 'puller-down and setter-up of kings;' who, without any pretensions to military talent, and without learning sufficient to write a note or read three lines, has overcome heroes, has established sovereigns on the throne of Persia, and by his firmness and wisdom has given a peace and tranquillity to his native land beyond what it has known for a century." The Persians are a handsome race of men, and fond of decorating their persons. I expected therefore to see Hajee Ibrahim enter elegantly dressed, with a dignified if not an elastic step, with a commanding figure, a clear animated countenance, with features expressive of his superior character: and, above all, with two piercing eyes, distinguished perhaps by that restless wandering from object to object, which indicates the care and anxiety of a man who held power and life by so precarious a tenure as a prime minister of Persia. We all arose as he was announced, and the Elchee went forward to meet him. Judge of my surprise when I saw, instead of the magnificent personage of my imagination, a heavy-looking man, dressed in very plain clothes, enter the room, and proceed towards his seat, with a rolling of the body that almost approached to a waddle. His features were rather coarse, and his eyes, though clear, had nothing of the piercing or searching qualities I had anticipated. As to his manners, they did not appear to have changed with his condition, but to be still those of a respectable citizen of Shiraz. I was, I must confess, quite disappointed; but before the half hour expired, which he passed in conversation with the Elchee, my mind had undergone another change, for there was in all he said a good sense, a sincerity, and a strength, that quite convinced me of the justice of the fame he had acquired.