NASRULLAH, KING OF BOKHARA. 187 



ropes ; food is lowered down to them in the same 

 manner. The sepulchral dampness of the place in 

 winter as well as in summer is said to be insupportable, 

 according to the testimony of eyewitnesses." Such 

 was the place ; imagination will supply the details as 

 to the condition of its victims. 



Was this the den where the two Englishman, Stoddart 

 and ConoUy, dragged out the last miserable days of 

 their lives ? It may be that it was, though the evidence 

 would seem to point to an even more refined chamber 

 of torture within the walls of the citadel itself as the 

 scene of their confinement. 



The whole story is one of supreme interest for English- 

 men, and I cannot pass from Bokhara without giving in 

 brief outline the facts of the case as far as they have 

 ever been ascertained. 



In the year 1826 died Seyid Haydar Tura, Amir of 

 Bokhara, and Hussein Khan reigned in his stead. But 

 Hussein was cursed with a brother, Nasrullah, who 

 had set his heart upon the throne, and after a reign 

 of fifty days the king died — not without suspicion of 

 poison. The summary methods characteristic of Eastern 

 despots now showed themselves in Nasrullah. Omar, 

 who had succeeded the deceased Hussein, was betrayed 

 by his prime minister and cast into prison; thirty of 

 his partisans were instantly put to death, his three 

 remaining brothers expelled from the city and murdered, 

 and a chief of the city hurled to his destruction from 

 the palace gates. Thus was the man who, to quote a 

 recent historian,^ " epitomised the vices which flourished 

 unchecked in Bokhara," borne through a sea of blood of 

 his own making to the throne which he stained with 

 his presence for a period of thirty-four years. 



The cruelty and depravity of his character is attested 



1 Professor E. D. Ross. 



