. moderate conduct he became so popular throughout the Turkish empire that the court were compelled to grant him an honorable peace and to receive his ambassadors with the highest distinction. He had hardly begun to enjoy the splendid results of his valor and conduct, when he was startled by Nadir's success in Khorasan. This was a serious misfortune. The battle of Kafer Kalà had disclosed the important fact that the Affghans were not invincible. If the Persians were permitted to expect aid from any quarter, he might tremble for Ispahan. All these circumstances determined him to crush Nadir as soon as possible. His measures were taken with his usual caution, and executed with his usual tyranny. In the principal cities a certain number of the male inhabitants were driven from their homes, and their places supplied by small garrisons of Affghans. All the suspected were put to death. The fortifications of Ispahan were strengthened; an army was recruited and equipped; and early in September he set out against Nadir, at the head of thirty thousand men, the conquerors of Persia and the Turks. -- On the twentieth of September, 1728 a day forever memorable in Persian story -the two armies met near the town of Damghâu. The Affghans hardly waited for orders to attack an enemy for whom they felt the greatest contempt. They threw off their shaggy mantles, flung away their match-locks, and with tremendous shouts sprang upon the Persian infantry, sabre in hand. Then was seen the value of that iron discipline which made Nadir the lord of Asia. Not far from those vast volcanic ridges which skirt the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, Nadir drew up his army in one formidable mass. The artillery he placed at the angles. Strong lines of sharpshooters, armed with very heavy muskets, covered his front and flanks. He himself, splendidly mounted, and grasping a heavy battle-axe, rode slowly along the lines, until the Affghans came within range. He then retired to a spot where he could overlook the field, and silently awaited the attack. Not so the Affghans. Full of ferocious contempt for their enemies, and hardly waiting for orders, they raised a dreadful shout, and came on at a run. But a heavy wellsustained and well-directed fire, that tore them down by the hundred, taught them the difference between the soldiers of Nadir and the wretches whom they had been accustomed to butcher in the streets of Ispahan. For an instant they recoiled; not dismayed, for bravery is the inheritance of the Affghan race, but bewildered at a resistance so utterly unexpected; and in an instant they rallied. Stepping over the bodies of their slaughtered kinsmen, with howls of barbarian rage and anguish, they drew their long knives, and made another desperate rush upon the Persian ranks. But vain were the utmost efforts of unskilful valor against a discipline such as the East had not seen since the days of the great Aurelian. Again there was a volley, at which they withered like grass before the fire; and ere the smoke had lifted, the thundering voice of Nadir was heard, ordering a general charge. The struggling savages were instantly trampled down, and scattered with horrible slaughter. Quarter was neither given, nor asked, nor thought of; and Ashruff fled from the battle, tearing his beard in agonies of terror and despair. Blood-thirsty savage as he was, the energy with which he faced his great disaster is too uncommon not to call for admiration. In forty-eight hours after the battle he had ridden two hundred miles. In forty-eight hours more he collected about ten thousand dispirited and famishing wretches, and set out for Ispahan by forced marches. There he assembled another army; entrenched himself in a strong position, nearly thirty miles from the city; and awaited another battle with unflinching resolution. On the twelfth of November Nadir arrived at Moortchâ Koor. Early next morning he stormed the Affghan's camp, killed vast numbers of his new levies, and drove the rest before him, after an obstinate and bloody struggle of five hours. Throughout the day Ashruff performed every duty of a general and a soldier. Where his Affghans charged, he headed them; where they wavered, he supported them; where they broke, he rallied them; when at last, after dreadful carnage, they gave way before superior discipline, he covered their tumultuous flight. Hoarse, exhausted, covered with dust and blood, but fighting like a lion, he reached the city at night-fall, the last man of his ruined army. Up to this moment the fugitives from the battle had not ceased to boast that they had gained a victory. But the arrival of the king proclaimed that all was lost. The Affghan women in the citadel discovered the fatal truth, and broke into loud lamentations. They were heard all over the city, and the Persians rejoiced with trembling at the calamity of their barbarous tyrants. The latter passed the night in preparations for flight. The shops and houses were robbed. Three hundred camels were loaded with the plunder of the royal palace. They would have slaughtered the people and fired the city, but the rapid approach of Nadir gave them no time. There was time, however, to butcher their captive, the unfortunate Shah Sultan Hussein, and this they did. They then departed about day-break in the direction of Shiraz. To the amazement of every one, Nadir refused to pursue them. In vain did the shah remonstrate; in vain did the unfortunate people of Shiraz entreat him to deliver them from the fury of the Affghans. The army, he said, was in want of every thing. Without money it could not be held together. If the King of kings would empower his slave to levy money in his own name, he would answer for the success of the campaign with his head; but if the supply of the army was to be entrusted, as heretofore, to the corrupt men who surrounded his majesty, he, Nadir, must humbly beg leave to retire from a service in which he must witness abuses and disasters that he could neither prevent nor remedy. The shah's consternation was great. Nadir was already commander of the army and Governor of Khorasan. To empower him to levy money in his own name was to abandon the last remaining fragment of the royal authority. Yet it was ruinous to offend him. The Affghans would resume courage, and the Persians, accustomed to conquer under his eye, would lose heart at his desertion. At the same time to suppose that he would change his resolve was out of the question. Accordingly, after a violent struggle between his fears and his inclinations, the unfortunate monarch yielded the authority he could no longer retain to his great and formidable servant. Clothed with unlimited irresponsible authority, this remarkable man now displayed the full force of his energetic character. He at once set out for Shiraz. There are no roads in Persia. The Affghans had desolated the country. The soldiers were exhausted, diseased, ill-clad, and nearly famished. Many perished from the excessive cold, for it was the depth of winter, and Persia, in the latitude of Florida has the winter of Vermont. None of the survivors fared worse than the Khan. He satisfied his hunger with a few parched peas. He quenched his thirst with snow water. He slept in his cloak, with a saddle for a pillow. After twenty days of incredible hardship, sustained without a murmur, he met the Affghans near the ruins of Persepolis, defeated those obstinate enemies in two bloody battles, and drove them into Shiraz in hopeless confusion. This was their last struggle. Ashruff fled in the night, that his own officers might not deliver him up. His clan instantly dispersed, never to reassemble. Dead horses, camels, provisions, bundles of rich stuff, the plunder of Shiraz and Ispahan, slaughtered bodies of old men, women and children, butchered by their own people, because they were unable to keep up, marked out to the horsemen of Nadir the flight of their despairing enemies. The exasperated peasantry rose all around them, and cut whole divisions to pieces. Many died of hunger in the desert. Many were taken and sold into slavery. Several thousand surrendered at one time, and were received into the Persian service. Very few ever escaped to their own country. Ashruff, while wandering in the desert, was attacked by a party of savage Ballouchees. He fell, fighting bravely for his life, and his head was cut off and sent as a present to Shah Tâmâsp. Thus were the Affghan tyrants exterminated by the genius and valor of Nadir, after having ruled over Persia seven years and twenty-one days. STANZAS INSCRIBED TO BY DR. DICKSON, NAY, lady!-thou alone canst tame For here I swear, love! once for all, Within the meanest cottage wall, Unlike my gay compeers, who roam From flower to flower, from home to home, My saddest moods I could beguile With thy sweet song, and sweeter smile; Could blissfully, without a sigh, With such as thee live, love, and die. TO FERDINAND FREIL IGRAT H. BY MARY E. HEWITT. THE poetry of FREILIGRATH, some noble specimens of which are included in LONGFELLOW'S Poets and Poetry of Europe,' has been rendered more familiar to us by BAYARD TAYLOR's spirited and beautiful translation of The Dead to the Living' FREILIGRATH's share in the late political events in Germany and subsequent exile, are well known to the reading world. |