e Shah came with his full suite, dined gorgeously at my
master's expense, and, as is customary, visited the women's apartments.
Presently came the news that my master had presented the Shah with
Zeenab! She was to be trained as a dancing-girl, and was to dance before
the Shah on his return from the campaign.

When Zeenab was thus removed out of my reach, I had no inducement to
remain in the physician's service. I therefore sought and secured a post
as _nasakchi_, or officer of the chief executioner. I was now a person
of authority with the crowd, and used my stick so freely upon their
heads and backs that I soon acquired a reputation for courage. Nor did I
fail to note the advice given to me by my brother officers as to the
making of money by extortion--how an officer inflicts the bastinado
fiercely or gently according to the capacity of the sufferer to pay; how
bribes may be obtained from villages anxious not to have troops
quartered upon them, and so on. I lived in such an atmosphere of
violence and cruelty--I heard of nothing but slitting noses, putting out
eyes, and chopping men in two--that I am persuaded I could almost have
impaled my own father.

The chief executioner was a tall and bony man, extremely ferocious.
"Give me good hard fighting," he was accustomed to declare; "let me have
my thrust with the lance, and my cut with the sabre, and I want no more.
We all have our weaknesses--these are mine." This terrible man
accompanied the Shah in his campaign, and I and the others went along
with him, in the army that was to expel the Muscovite infidels from
Georgia. Having heard that the Muscovites were posted on the Pembaki
river, the chief executioner, with a large body of cavalry and infantry,
proceeded to advance upon them.

On reaching the river, we found two Muscovite soldiers on the opposite
bank. The chief put on a face of the greatest resolution. "Go, seize,
strike, kill!" he exclaimed. "Bring me their heads!"

Several men dashed into the river, but the Russians, firing steadily,
killed two of them, whereupon the rest retreated; nor could all the
chief's oaths, entreaties, and offers of money persuade anybody to go
forward.

While we were thus parleying, a shot hit the chief executioner's
stirrup, which awoke his fears to such a degree that he recalled his
troops, and himself rode hastily away, exclaiming, "Curses be on their
beards! Whoever fought after this fashion? Killing, killing, as if we
were so