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104 India, and to prevent the French from settling or residing in Persia. In the event of war between the Afghans and the Persians or the Persians and the French, the British were to support Persia. The British gold and intrigues made great headway. As they themselves have admitted " Every difficulty melted away beneath the magic touch of English gold". Malcolm was so confident of his success that he wrote proudly from Isfahan, " Zaman Shah can do nothing in India before the setting of rains of 1801. He has no time, even if he had the power for such an attempt, and by the blessing of God he will for some years to come be too much engaged in this quarter to think of attacking India." What an irony of fate ! The letter had not yet reached India when the days of the Afghan sovereign were numbered. The nightmare of British dreams was deprived of his eyesight by Mahmud and impri- soned in Bala Hissar. Zaman Shah committed a blunder by appoint- ing Wafadar Khan, a base and designing man, to be his minister. The conspiring nature of this man rendered Zaman Shah, in spite of his amiable disposition, unbearable to the other chiefs. Every-