For the last ten years of his life the gout that the Amir suffered from gradually took greater hold of him, and he could walk but very little, and had to be carried whenever he went any distance, while for the last two or three years he was unable to stand, and had to be carried about, even in the room. He got gradually weaker also, through the repeated attacks of illness, which came on at shorter and shorter intervals, and gradually, too, his brain became affected, until it was only at times that he was able to think or reason clearly. In this condition he had to rely still more on his officials, and eventually the power of the government practically lay in the hands of three of them, who in the Amir’s weakened condition had gained his confidence, and were able to turn his mind in any direction they pleased. These men, as the habit of the country is, usurped the power they had while it was theirs, until their conduct became so arrogant that they made themselves very unpopular. One of them even went so far as to take away by force the carpenters and carts at work on Sirdar Habibullah’s new house, giving the Amir’s name as the excuse, and knowing the Amir was not in the condition to properly listen to his son’s complaint, even if the son had the audacity to place the matter before his father. This man was degraded from his office soon after Sirdar Habibullah became Amir. Eventually, in the spring of 1901, Amir Abdur Rahman suddenly had a stroke, and it was thought that it was all over with him; but he rallied, and lingered on until some six months later, when, on October 1, he died, and it was said that his feet were dead a few days before, and the stench from them was such that no one could stop long in the same room with him. On the day when the Amir lay dying, and it was seen that there was no hope of recovery, Sirdar Habibullah and Sirdar Nasrullah, together with several of the leading officials, held a consultation, and decided upon the steps to be taken immediately the Amir’s life had passed, for trouble and revolt were confidently expected as soon as it became known for a fact by the people that the Amir was dead, and also it was expected that the Queen-Sultana would try to get the army to side with her in getting her son Mahomed Omar crowned Amir; she had a good deal of influence, and was popular with most people. It was decided at this council that Sirdar Habibullah was to succeed his father, and that when the Amir was dead he should at once occupy the fortified palace of Arak, in which is the treasury, together with the stores of modern arms, for the possession of that would make him practically master of the situation, and when there, even should the soldiers rise, as was feared, there was the possibility of holding out until matters quieted down, and terms could be arranged.