1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

30
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
All that actually transpired was that the Ameer had granted the envo ys
several public interviews, when they had set at one end of a long room,
while he had sat on his couch at the end of the other; that he had been
gracious and courteous, but had also been firm. “The Hazaras,” he said,
“were excellent, useful, hard-working people, people whose value he
appreciated, and whom he was most desirous of having as friends, but
they were aliens, and therein, no doubt, lay the cause casus belli. The y
had been planted in Gaur, part of the territory proper of Afghanistan,
by aliens who had retreated into the regions from which they had
sprung, leaving these cuckoos behind . There they have lived and
multiplied, in the land of the Afghans, without even owning allegiance
to the prince whose territory they occupied. Other aliens, taking
advantage of the disjointed conditio n in which the countr y had been for
centuries, had done the same thing. The Hazaras were by no means the
only offenders, nor were the y serious offenders. The Ameer had
laughed and joked and told them they had been wise and had done well,
but the time had now come when all this was to be set right. This state
of affairs had been proved disadvantageous to the cuckoos as well as to
the hedge-sparrows, as the Afghan hed ge-sparrow, unlike the feathered
one, had resented the strangers and had shown fight. So he, the Ameer,
the generous, the wise, having leisure now to devote to this important
question, had reviewed the whole matter in his mind, and had decided
that an alternation must be made, and that for the future there was to be
but one ruling sovereign in the countr y of Afghanistan, one capital and
seat of government, one military centre, and, in consequence, of
course, one royal treasury. The cuckoos were, however, to be allowed
to retain the nests in which they had established themselves so long
ago (provided, of course, the y proved themselves lo yal subjects to the
lawful owners and therefore worthy of the consideration shown them),
but they would now be required to pay rent, in the form of taxes, for
the land and houses which they occupied . Nothing could be fairer.
These taxes, moreover, would be used for their own benefit for the
making of roads through their own country, and for the support of an
army and police for their own protection.
It had all sounded so plausible that the third member of the Hazara
mission to Kabul could detect no flaw in the argument, and only shook
his heavy head wisely, sa ying, “True, true.”
Ghu lam Hossain said nothing, but wrote on a piece of paper requesting
a private interview with His Majesty, when neither Afghans nor the
other two Hazara envo ys should be present. He received for answer that
his request should be considered .
Sayad Mir Hassan said nothing, so it was taken for granted that his
feelings were friendly, and that he was disposed to follow the lead
given by his companions, and having been about an hour in the
presence chamber the y were given leave to depart.
Never had any of those three mountaineers been surrounded with so
much magnificence. The Sa yad moved on in front, little affected by it.