Persian Letters/Letter 150

Letter 150
Usbek to Narsit, at the Seraglio at Ispahan

MISERABLE slave! you have in your hands letters which contain orders for prompt and strong measures; the least delay may reduce me to despair; and you remain inactive under an empty pretext!

Atrocious things are going on: perhaps the half of my slaves at this very moment merit death. With this I send you the letter which the chief eunuch wrote me before he died concerning these disorders. Had you opened the despatch addressed to him, you would have found bloody instructions. Read these instructions, and execute them, or you shall perish.

* * *, the 25th of the moon of Chalval,1718.