Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/197

 unrestrained in a garden from which the tallest poppies should have been removed. Mahomed Veli survived the threats of vengeance which his act called forth, and fifty years later he descended to his grave mourned as the honoured elder of the Kajar race.

The government of Meshed was next conferred by the Shah upon another of his sons, Hassan Ali Meerza, a prince of a warlike disposition, and well calculated to reduce to submission the turbulent nobles of Khorassan. As they declined to appear at his court, he marched against them at the head of his troops, and he brought them one after another to acknowledge his authority. But one Hezareh chief still held out in his stronghold of Mahmoodabad, and the prince, who was preparing to march upon Herat, determined to reduce this fortress by the way. As his soldiers defiled before its walls, a rash matchlockman fired a shot on the Persian troops, and this unfortunate measure determined their commander to adopt the severest measures against the Hezareh hold. It was assaulted in due form; one hundred and twenty of its defenders fell in the assault, and three hundred and fifty of their comrades were made prisoners. Their commander, however, escaped on horseback, although for twenty miles he was pursued by the prince in person. Disappointed in the hope of taking him, the Persian Shahzadeh turned his vengeance upon his prisoners, some of whom he caused to be nailed to the ground. The prince, it has been said, was at