art, with the Koh-i-Nur companion diamond, known as
the Darya-i-Nur (Sea of Light), was secured by Persian soldiers, who hid
it all away in Khorasan and the adjoining districts.

When Agha Mohamed Shah found leisure from his wars and work of firmly
establishing his authority, he turned his attention to the recovery of
Nadirs jewels, and proceeded to Meshed, where, by means of cunning and
cruelty, he succeeded in wresting from the plunderers of Nadir's camp,
and others, the rare collection of gems and ornaments now in the royal
treasury at Tehran. The value of the collection is believed to be very
great.

The singular preservation of the regalia and Crown jewels of Persia from
plunder while they were in the hands of rebels after the death of Agha
Mohamed Shah, and again on the death of Fatch Ali Shah, is most
remarkable. A superstitious feeling of fear and respect appears to have
kept them from being lost from the Crown, or it may be that, on the
principle of 'safety in numbers,' every one, with a prospective share of
the plunder in view, was a check on his neighbour against theft of that
which they thought belonged to all.

Sultan Masud Mirza, better known as the Zil-es-Sultan, the eldest son of
the late Shah, has generally been regarded as likely to challenge the
right of his younger brother to the throne. His ambition and overweening
self-confidence combined to make him imprudent in permitting his
partisans to speak aloud of his superior qualifications as a successor
to his father. The late Shah's considerate treatment of him on all
occasions also led him to make ill-judged requests for such extended
rule in the South that his father said Persia was not large enough for
two Shahs. I think his idea of a viceroyalty in the South came from
foolish vanity, and not from any serious thought of semi-independence,
as some who heard him speak on this subject supposed.

His father always wrote to him as 'my well-beloved first-born,' and up
to 1888 he allowed him great power and freedom of action. He was fond of
'playing at soldiers,' and he went to work at this amusement with such
energy and will that he formed a numerous and very efficient army under
well-trained officers, too good, the Shah thought, to be quite safe.
Nasr-ed-Din sent an officer whom he could trust to Isfahan to bring back
a true report on the army there; and such was the Zil's self-assurance,
that he went out of his way to show him everything, and to make