AUDIENCE OF ABBAS MIRZA. 
^19 
horse to the very brink of the chasm, stretched his neck over, and 
looking about him, reported that it was difficult, but that he thought 
they might succeed to cross it. Upon which the Prince rode to the 
same spot himself, and having coolly surveyed the danger, confessed 
that it was rather too great to be risked. They came down the bank 
of a very shelving mountain, which overlooked the camp; and shortly 
after he reached his tent, saluted by his troops and their music. 
He had not long alighted, before he sent me two paniers of fruit as a 
present, and shortly after one of his officers came to request my at¬ 
tendance. After having been introduced with the usual forms, I was 
desired to seat myself on the felt carpet [nummud] opposite to the 
Prince. He himself was seated tailor-like, at one extremity of the 
tent, with his cap on one side, leaning forwards in a playful manner 
over his knees. Oh one side of him was an ink-stand and some 
papers, and at the other extremity of the tent was Hyder Ali Khan, 
one of his favourite officers. After saying some obliging things, he 
asked me for the letters of which I was the bearer, which I then de¬ 
livered to him. One of them contained a sketch of the treaty re¬ 
cently concluded between Russia and Turkey, over which he pon¬ 
dered with considerable attention for a long while, without opening 
his lips. He then made a sign to Hyder Ali Khan to withdraw, and 
requiring me to come close to him, he made some very shrewd remarks 
upon the different articles of the treaty, showing himself a perfect 
master of the nature of the political relations that existed between 
those two states. Among the letters of which I was the bearer was 
that of Mr. Gordon from Teflis, to the contents of which he paid the 
most minute attention; and when I informed him that by desire of the 
Russian General Mr. Gordon was about returning to us, through Kara- 
bagh, by Ganja and Shisheh, in order to inspect the Russian posses¬ 
sions in that part of the country, the Prince exclaimed, “ Ah, I know 
“ those wiles of old ; they will make Mr. Gordon believe that they are 
very strong, when it is all the contrary. On the one day they will 
“ march a set of men before him; and on the next, changing their 
“ dress, they will exhibit the very same set as fresh troops newly ar- 
F F 2 
