ch our ears we will blot you out of the pages of the book of
creation."

The conqueror had behaved with considerable moderation and kindness
toward the chief omrahs of the court of Delhi; but he must have despised
their luxurious and effeminate habits. We, indeed, learn his sentiments
from a remarkable anecdote. When speaking one day to Kummer-u-din, who
was then vizier, he demanded how many ladies he had? "Eight hundred
fifty," was the reply. "Let one hundred fifty of our female captives,"
said Nadir, "be sent to the vizier, who will then be entitled to the
high military rank of a _mim-bashee_, or commander of a thousand."

The march of Nadir from India was literally encumbered with spoil. The
amount of the plunder that he carried from that country has been
estimated variously. The highest calculation makes it upward of seventy
millions sterling; the lowest is considerably more than thirty. A great
part of this was in precious stones, of which Nadir was immoderately
fond. When on his march from India he was informed that several of the
most valuable crown-jewels had been secreted by some of his followers,
he made this a pretext for searching the baggage of every man in his
army, and appropriating all the jewels that were found to himself. The
soldiers murmured, but submitted; and their not resisting this despotic
act is an extraordinary proof of the subordination which he had
established. He was, however, in general kind and liberal to his troops:
he had given to each man a gratuity of three months' pay at the fall of
Kandahar; he gave them as much more after the victory of Karnal; and
they received a still greater bounty before he marched from Delhi.

The troops of Nadir, we are told, suffered much in their retreat from
India by the intense heat to which they were exposed. Their passage over
the rivers of the Punjab and the Indus was delayed by accidents to the
temporary bridges which he had constructed, and in one instance by the
threatened attack of the mountaineers of Kabul, whose forbearance the
proud conqueror did not disdain to purchase; and when we consider the
nature of the country through which he had to pass, the immense train of
baggage with which his army was accompanied, and the danger that might
have arisen from the slightest confusion, we cannot blame the prudence
with which he acted upon this occasion.

The greatest expectation was excited in Persia at the prospect of the
return of their victorious