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432 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. Shah, had they heen in the least degree encouraged to do so by the English commanders ; and had they gone over to the enemy, a general rising in Persia would have been the inevitable consequence. The Eussian authori- ties in Georgia, also, might have consulted the tranquillity of their frontier by occupying the province of Azerbaeejan ; a position which would have given Eussia the command of Asia Minor. The war against Persia, therefore, had to be conducted on the principle of doing only as much mischief to the enemy as might suffice to induce him to make peace upon the terms required of him. It is sin- gularly illustrative of Persian levity, that before the British force appeared in the Persian Gulf, the original cause of quarrel between the Sedr-Azem and Mr. Murray had altogether ceased to exist. Meerza Hashem Khan had voluntarily renounced his employment under the English Government, and all claim to any protection to which it might entitle him; whereupon he was forth- with received into favour by the Sedr-Azem, and by the Shah. His wife, the Helen of the war, was restored to him, and all the imputations which had been cast upon her character were declared by the Persian Minister him- self to have been calumnies invented to serve a purpose. A suitable salary was conferred upon him, and the lady who had been so maligned, once more took her place amongst the honourable women of the land. The question of Herat was therefore now the main point at issue between the governments of Great Britain and Persia. The capture of that fortress, which had withstood for so long a time all the power of Mahomed Shah, had filled the young king with pride and grati- fication; but this feeling of satisfaction was somewhat