204 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA.
to Russia's designs against India that might have been pregnant with results of the highest importance. The army which Mahomed Shah had assembled round Herat was composed of at least thirty thousand men, many of whom were trained soldiers and quite trustworthy. There can be little doubt that, despite the treachery and divisions which existed within the army, Herat must have surrendered had even the plans of the French officer, Semineau, been adopted. On several occasions the bravery of certain portions of the Persian army was worthy of all praise, and almost made up for the deficiencies of their leaders. It may be said that ever since this year Russia's schemes in Persia have not been marked by their old vigour, and that, although she has never ceased to maintain her position in the Persian Court, it is even now not so supreme as it was in the old days of Nesselrode and Simonitch. But that Russia had not completely abandoned her Persian schemes, as Count Nesselrode so emphatically declared in his despatch of the 20th of October, 1838, may be seen from the fact that Count Simonitch was succeeded at the Persian Court by General Duhamei, the same officer who fifteen years later proposed the despatch of an expedition against India during the Crimean war. The future course of these relations depends more upon the development of the Afghan question by our war with Dost Mahomed than upon Persia, and this can be considered more conveniently in a later chapter. It is not clear what part Russia played in the later phases of the Herat question, or
