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 feel on receiving his dismissal from the Kajar court. The whole people of Persia seemed to be united in the determination to enter upon a religious war, and the king's last scruples were removed on his receiving intimation of the threat that if he should still decline to lead his people to battle, his subjects would find another leader for themselves. The nation was indeed roused to action as it never had been roused since the period when its energies had been directed by Nadir. From the Bakhtiari mountains and from the hills of Looristan; from the vales of Khorassan and the plains of Irak; troops in thousands came to join the standard of the crown-prince, to whom was assigned the task of conducting the war, which was now begun without recourse being had to the preliminary ceremony of a formal declaration.

The first blow struck in this war was given by the hereditary chief of Taleesh, who, with the object of rescuing his wife from the hands of the Russian authorities, attacked a detachment on its march to Lankoran.