affection to all my friends." Again, on March 11, he writes:
"At first we had viewed the Amir's conduct as perhaps dictated by mad
caprice, but now, looking back upon the whole, we saw indeed that it
had been the deliberate malice of a demon, questioning and raising
our hopes and ascertaining our condition, only to see how our hearts
were going on in the process of breaking.

"I did not think to shed one more tear among such cold-blooded men,
but yesterday evening, as I looked upon Stoddart's half-naked and
much lacerated body, conceiving that I was the especial object of
the King's hatred, because of my having come to him after visiting
Khiva and Khok, and told him that the British Government was too
great to stir up secret enmity against any of its enemies, I wept on,
entreating one of our keepers to have conveyed to the chief my humble
request that he would direct his anger upon me, and not further destroy
by it my poor broken Stoddart, who had suffered so much and so meekly
here for three years. My earnest words were answered by a 'Don't cry
and distress yourself.' He, alas! would do nothing, so we turned and
kissed each other and prayed together, and we have risen again from our
knees with hearts comforted, as if an angel had spoken to us, resolved,
please God, to wear our English honesty and dignity to the last, within
all the misery and filth that this monster may try to degrade us with."

Again, on March 28: "We have been ninety-nine days and nights without
a change of clothes."

One of the native agents of the mission, Salih Muhammad by name,
subsequently escaped to India, and thus relates the closing scene of
the tragedy.

"On Tuesday night (June 14, 1842) their quarters were entered by
several men, who stripped them and carried them off, but I do not know
whether it was to the Black Well or to some other prison. In stripping
Colonel Stoddart a lead pencil was found in the lining of his coat
and some papers in his waist. These were taken to the Amir, who gave
orders that he should be beaten with heavy sticks till he disclosed
who brought the papers, and to whom he wrote. He was most violently
beaten, but he revealed nothing. He was beaten repeatedly for two or
three days. On Friday the Amir gave orders that Colonel Stoddart should
be killed in the presence of Captain Conolly, who should be offered
his life if he would become a Muhammadan. In the afternoon they were
taken outside the prison into the street