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40 Nadir, in his last years, laid aside the prudence by the practice of which he had found his way to the throne. Turning on his most faithful friends in quick succession, he made it impossible for any of his subjects to have the slightest security for life and property, and from such a state of things it followed, as a matter of course, that, sooner or later, those who feared for their own lives would rid themselves of an inhuman tyrant. The blow which the conspirators struck was approved of by all the nation, excepting the followers of an Affghan chief, named Ahmed Khan, who commanded 10,000 Oozbegs and Affghans, and who determined to avenge the death of his friend. Ahmed Khan, however, was over-matched, and he returned with his force to Kandahar, where he founded a kingdom of his own. The empire of Persia was thus shorn of all the conquests of Nadir, and reduced to the limits of the ancient realm of the Sefaveeans, without the province of Affghanistan. I fear that the narration of the events which followed the death of Nadir Shah, may somewhat perplex the reader; but in order to enable him to appreciate the present; state of things in Persia, it is necessary that he should have some idea of the chaos out of which it was evolved.

Nadir was succeeded by his nephew Ali, who took the name of Adel Shah. The first act of this prince on acquiring power was to put to death the whole actual and possible progeny of his uncle, with the exception of one boy, named Shahrukh Meerza, who was the son of the eldest son of Nadir, by Fatima, the daughter of Shah Hussein, and who was, therefore, at the same time, the heir of the Sefaveeans and of the conqueror who had supplanted them. Adel Shah gave out that this lad, too,