Read Online Return of a King: The Battle For Afghanistan by William Dalrymple - Free Book Online

did so.
    Vitkevitch’s notes for his journey south were burned just before his mysterious death, but Captain Blaramberg’s memoirs survive. ‘Having spent two months in St Petersburg and received my instructions,’ he wrote, ‘I was preparing to leave the city, but first I met my travelling companion Lieutenant Vitkevich. He turned out to be a pleasant young Pole, 28 years old, with an expressive face, well-educated and energetic . . . all the necessary qualities to play in Asia the role of Alexander Burnes.’ 34
    The two travelled south in a carriage laden with presents and bribes for Persian and Afghan officials, and on arrival in Tiflis they met Baron von Rosen, the Commander-in-Chief, and visited Countess Simonitch, who ‘became a frequent guest; her charming daughters bore a great resemblance to their astonishing mother’.
    The further south they went from Tiflis, the more idyllic the countryside became. The two travellers slept out under the stars, and spent nights in the camps of nomads. ‘On 11 July we crossed the border of the Yerivan province and the oppressive heat forced us to halt at a ruined mosque,’ wrote Blaramberg.
     
    It was here that we saw the magnificent Mount Ararat for the first time: its double peak covered in glittering snow rose in the south over the plain. On the 13th we went over the last mountain ridge and descended into the Araxes valley. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. We settled in the shade of a small grove by a babbling stream and admired the magnificent Ararat towering before us. Our Armenian manservant made a delicious pilaf and we, being in high spirits, emptied a bottle of Madeira. 35
     
    It was once they had crossed the Persian border that Vitkevitch’s volatile temperament darkened. ‘During our journey through Persia, Vitkevitch was often in a melancholy mood,’ remembered Blaramberg, ‘and he would say that he had had enough of life.’ Only when the party reached Teheran did Vitkevitch’s spirits revive.
    For here Simonitch informed Vitkevitch of two pieces of intelligence which greatly excited the Pole. The first – which later turned out to be false – was that Mirza Hussein Ali’s mission had already aroused the suspicion of British intelligence, which, said Simonitch, had tailed the two travellers all the way from Kabul. Simonitch further warned him that as a result he might now be a target for ‘intrigues and provocations by British agents’. None of this was true – the British were at this stage entirely ignorant of the Afghan mission to the Tsar – but in order to safeguard the mission Vitkevitch was provided by the Embassy with a Cossack escort to look after him as he headed on to Nishapur and hence to the Shah’s camp at Herat. It was this escort that did finally alert British intelligence – in the person of Rawlinson – to the existence of Vitkevitch’s mission.
    The second piece of news was even more to Vitkevitch’s taste. For Simonitch’s spies in Afghanistan had just informed him that Vitkevitch would not be alone in Kabul. His British counterpart Alexander Burnes was heading in the same direction, on his second mission to Central Asia. Like Vitkevitch he had specific instructions to win over Dost Mohammad Khan. The man whom Vitkevitch had shadowed and to some extent modelled himself on was heading to the same destination, charged with exactly the same task.
    The two men had in fact much in common. They were of nearly the same age; both came from the distant provinces of their respective empires, with few connections to the ruling elite, and having arrived in Asia within a few months of each other had both worked their way up through their own merit and daring, and especially their skill in languages. Now the two would come face to face, in the court of Kabul, and the outcome of the contest would do much to determine the immediate future not only of Afghanistan, but of Central Asia. The Great Game had begun.
     
     
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