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Machine transcription
taken by surprise and easily overpowered. These defeats clearly demonstrated the weakness of the army and the treachery at the court, and were of great encouragement to Bacha and his partisans. Their numbers increased daily. Robbers from all parts of the country gathered around him. Government offices and treasuries were plundered in broad daylight. Military posts were stormed and captured ; the officers were put to the sword, and the soldiers either enlisted in his infamous band or were disarmed. This gave the men of religion the opportunity they had been seeking for long, of avenging themselves on the King, who had so long insulted their religion, trampled upon their susceptibilities, and had refused to listen to their grievances. In Bacha they found a man whom they could use for their own purposes. They declared him to be a Ghazi, a defender of the faith, and went from place to place inciting the people to rally round his standard. A large number of people now gathered round him, some to have a share in the loot, others to get rid of an unsympathetic Government under which they had been groaning for a long time. The secret help of
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Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.