Our old friend showed us a clasp-knife presented him by the colonel, who on that occasion nearly lost both his feet from frost-bite.

Captains Gill and Clayton, [A] of the Royal Engineers and Ninth Lancers, were with him, but escaped unharmed.
Stiff and worn out with the events of the day, we soon stretched ourselves in front of the blazing fire in anticipation of a good night's rest; but sleep was not for us.

In the next room were a party of Persian merchants from Astrakhan on their way to Bagdad _via_ Teheran, who had been prisoners here for five days, and were now carousing on the strength of getting away on the morrow.

A woman was with them--a brazen-faced, shrill-voiced Armenian, who made more noise than all the rest put together.

Singing, dancing, quarrelling, and drinking went on without intermission till long past midnight, our neighbours raising such a din that the good people of Kharzan, a quarter of a mile away, must have turned uneasily in their slumbers, and wondered whether an army of fiends had not broken loose.