Look, here is his commission signed with the celestial seal, and attested by the sacred names of the forty-nine Imaums.

You have but to renounce your religion and your service, and all these rewards are yours." He produced a parchment, signed as he said, and gave it to me (it was beautifully written in Indian ink: I had it for fourteen years, but a rascally valet, seeing it very dirty, WASHED it, forsooth, and washed off every bit of the writing).

I took it calmly, and said, "This is a tempting offer.

O Vizier, how long wilt thou give me to consider of it ?" After a long parley, he allowed me six hours, when I promised to give him an answer.

My mind, however, was made up--as soon as he was gone, I threw myself on the sofa and fell asleep.
***** At the end of the six hours the Vizier came back: two people were with him; one, by his martial appearance, I knew to be Holkar, the other I did not recognize.