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 SIR II. BETHUNE DEFEATS THE PRETENDER. 283 which Cardinal Mazarin wielded over the mind of Louis the Fourteenth. The Shah at this time, it was averred, scarcely ventured to give an order to his personal attendants without having previously ohtained the con- sent of his Grand Vizeer. Sir Henry Bethune marched to within eighty miles of Ispahan, when he learned that the troops of the Firman-Firma were approaching from the other direction with the intention of taking posses- sion of the city. He determined upon this to he before- hand with the pretender, and he accordingly executed a forced march which only Persian troops could accom- plish ; traversing the eighty miles that lay between him and Ispahan in the space of little more than thirty hours.* Ispahan had been the scene of the greatest disorder, the lootis, or vagabonds, of the place having been encouraged in their lawlessness by the Sheikh-el- Islam, and by the Vizeer of the deceased king, who had espoused the cause of the Firman-Firma. The arrival of Sir Henry Bethune was the signal for the restoration of order. He had not been a week at Ispahan when intelligence reached him of the approach of the governor- general of Fars, whose army was commanded by his brother, Hassan Ali Meerza, the Shuja-es-Sultaneh. On receiving this information, Colonel Bethune put a portion of his army again in motion. He took with him only two regiments of infantry, some troops of cavalry, and twenty guns. In all, his force did not amount to four thousand men, and he was to be opposed to the ablest leader in Persia. The Shuja-es-Sultaneh endeavoured to turn his opponent's flank by taking a less- frequented road through the hills, by which Ispahan
 * ERASER'S Travels in Kurdistan.