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-170- brother. As we have already mentioned, at the centre of the kingdom one of the grandsons of the Amir had been made the governor. But a large number of the king's relatives were with him on this Herat expedition, each one of whom had a plan unto himself for his personal interests, except Sirdar Mohamed Afzal Khan. Each, too, had some expectations for the throne of their father. Apart from this the question of Herat had become a matter of contention, for Sirdar Sultan Ahmed Khan would not give up resistance and continued to fight, and after him his son Sirdar Shah Nawaz Khan, despite the solicitations of the inhabitants of the town would not give up. Quite naturally the illness of the king under this strain of war and worry progressively became worse, and added to other difficulties producing a situation at which might well shed tears. As Amir Dost Mohamed Khan now saw the danger of the situation from all directions, and hoped but little for his success, only two matters had any importance to him. Both of them had the significance of life and death to him ; the first was the appointment of an heir to the throne, and the second was the fall of Herat. The Amir was of the opinion that even if one of these two objects could not be secured, prior to his death, then the whole picture of events as he saw them would be gravely distorted and became one was intimately related to the other, and since no other person could conduct the warfare except himself, he resolved to call a meeting of his sons and princes, leaders of the clans and heads of the departments of the army so that he could solve the question with them and before them. Mirza Yaqub Ali Khan writes of this in his book entitled "The Statements of the Last Kings of Afghanistan, as below: "In the Deh Bori of Kabul, I fastened the sword to the girdle of my grandson Sirdar Mohamed Ali Khan, as the heir of his father Sirdar Shair Ali Khan, and made him governor of Kabul. To you all elders I have addressed these remarks that you