n residence at Kabul, where he died.[4] He
was succeeded by Taimur Shah, who was succeeded by his eldest son,
Zaman Shah, who, after a reign of a few years, was driven from his
throne by his younger brother, Mahmud. He sought an asylum with his
friend Ashik, who commanded a distant fortress, and who betrayed him
to the usurper, and put him into confinement. He concealed the great
diamond in a crevice in the wall of the room in which he was
confined; and the rest of his jewels in a hole made in the ground
with his dagger. As soon as Mahmud received intimation of the arrest
from Ashik, he sent for his brother, had his eyes put out, and
demanded the jewels, but Zaman Shah pretended that he had thrown them
into the river as he passed over. Two years after this, the third
brother, the Sultan Shuja, deposed Mahmud, ascended the throne by the
consent of his elder brother, and, as a fair specimen of his notions
of retributive justice, he blew away from the mouths of cannon, not
only Ashik himself, but his wife and all his innocent and unoffending
children.

He intended to put out the eyes of his deposed brother, Mahmud, but
was dissuaded from it by his mother and Zaman Shah, who now pointed
out to him the place where he had concealed the great diamond. Mahmud
made his escape from prison, raised a party, drove out his brothers,
and once more ascended the throne. The two brothers sought an asylum
in the Honourable Company's territories; and have from that time
resided at an out frontier station of Ludiana, upon the banks of the
Hyphasis,[5] upon a liberal pension assigned for their maintenance by
our Government. On their way through the territories of the Sikh
chief, Ranjit Singh, Shuja was discovered to have this great diamond,
the Mountain of Light, about his person; and he was, by a little
torture skilfully applied to the mind and body, made to surrender it
to his generous host.[6] Mahmud was succeeded in the government of
the fortress and province of Herat by his son Kamran; but the throne
of Kabul was seized by the mayor of the palace, who bequeathed it to
his son Dost Muhammad, a man, in all the qualities requisite in a
sovereign, immeasurably superior to any member of the house of Ahmad
Shah Abdali. Ranjit Singh had wrested from him the province of
Peshawar in times of difficulty, and, as we would not assist him in
recovering it from our old ally, he thought himself justified in
seeking the aid of those who would, the Rus