had this soldier of fortune acted towards his own country when he had received everything from her that he needed? By offering an asylum to all those who had participated in the plots against Khudayar Khan himself, by encouraging sedition in the state itself against the Russians and their nominee, Khudayar, the legal ruler of the state. As if these crimes were not sufficiently serious, he had added thereto the insult of having refused to recognize in Khudayar his liege lord; and Khudayar's own personal fears were worked upon to yield that acquiescence to the Russian proposal that was necessary to secure its success. It was pointed out to him that a strong military power in Kashgar might give an impetus to the plots then fermenting in the active brain of Aftobatcha, the ambitious son of Mussulman Kuli, the prime minister and vizier of thirty years ago. The arguments were specious, and it cannot be doubted that they made some impression on Khudayar Khan. This much-to-be-pitied ruler, forced by the necessities of his position to humour his Russian advisers, still had the courage to refuse to assert his claims as lord over Kashgar. With a gentle irony he pointed to the map, and showed how Khokand's frontier should extend farther to the west than it did, and that a conquest over the barren regions of the Kizil Yart would be but a sorry equivalent for the loss of Tashkent and Hodjent. He, however, promised to make use of his best means for inducing Yakoob Beg to make overtures to the Russian government for the ratification of a treaty of commerce. So Khudayar Khan indited a letter to Yakoob Beg, at the dictation of his Russian friends, to this effect; but he silvered the pill by a private message giving information of the Russian intentions in the future. The tenor of that communication was that the Russians were less eager than might have been supposed to bring matters to a final crisis with Yakoob Beg, and that they were most desirous of settling the question without any flagrant loss of dignity by being the first to recommence negotiations. Both publicly and privately Khudayar Khan advised that the Athalik Ghazi should make some concessions in form to the Russian government. The Russians themselves, having failed to induce Khudayar Khan to put pressure on Yakoob Beg, appear to have arrived at the same conclusion as that set out in the letters of Khudayar. Yakoob Beg must make the sign, and they would meet him half way in his desire to share in the great benefits accruing from a Muscovite alliance. The authorities at Tashkent went so far as to flatter themselves that they had attained a solution of one of their chief annoyances. They had, by making use of the mediation of Khudayar, gone so far as to open the door for Yakoob Beg to abase himself. Such condescension was unheard of, and no doubt was entertained but that this proud Mahomedan ruler would gladly hasten to avail himself of the last chance accorded him by the clemency of the Czar.