spot, and the
city of Teheran immediately passed under military control. The
self-constituted _directoire_ of seven who accomplished this dubious
feat first ascertained that the considerable force of Bakhtiyari
tribesmen, some 2,000, who had remained in the capital after the defeat
of the ex-Shah's forces in September last, had been duly "fixed" by the
same Russian agencies who had so early succeeded in persuading the
members of the ex-cabinet that their true interests lay in siding with
Russia. It is impossible to say just what proportions of fear and
cupidity decided the members of the deposed cabinet to take the aliens'
side against their country, but both emotions undoubtedly played a
part. The premier was one of the leading chiefs or "khans" of the
Bakhtiyaris, and another chief was the self-styled Minister of War.
These chieftains have always been a strange and changing mixture of
mountain patriot and city intriguer--of loyal soldier and mercenary
looter. The mercenary instincts, possibly aided by a sense of their own
comparative helplessness against Russian Cossacks and artillery, led
them to accept the stranger's gold and fair promises, and they ended
their checkered but theretofore relatively honorable careers by selling
their country for a small pile of cash and the more alluring promise
that the "grand viziership" (_i.e.,_ post of Minister of Finance)
should be perpetual in their family or clan.

That same afternoon a large number of the "abolished" deputies came to
my office. They were men whom I had grown to know well, men of European
education, in whose courage, integrity, and patriotism I had the
fullest confidence. To them, the unlawful action of their own
countrymen was more than a political catastrophe; it was a sacrilege, a
profanation, a heinous crime. They came in tears, with broken voices,
with murder in their hearts, torn by the doubt as to whether they
should kill the members of the _directoire_ and drive out the
traitorous tribesmen who had made possible the destruction of the
government, or adopt the truly Oriental idea of killing themselves.
They asked my advice, and, hesitating somewhat as to whether I should
interfere to save the lives of notorious betrayers of their country, I
finally persuaded them to do neither the one nor the other. There
seemed to be no particular good in assassinating even their treacherous
countrymen, as it would only have given color to the pretensions of
Russia an