EX-KING OF AFGHANISTAN

summer, it was noticed that Souriya was undertaking
the terrible journey with an added burden. She was
going to have a child, conceived in the throes of revolu-
tion and carried through the agonies of a hurried
evacuation.

The journey down through the brown plains of India
must have been a torment to her. The sun beat down
that spring relentlessly and continuously. For two
days and nights she gasped in pain. Then, safe in the
cool rooms of the hotel in Bombay, she delivered her
child.

Amanullah was even then impatient to be oft. He
paced the corridors of the hotel in impotent fury. He
was seared by regrets and impatience. His pride stung
him, and he wept silently at the contrast of his secret
departure, an exile, and his former triumphant visit to
Bombay.

Hardly had Souriya recovered sufficiently to leave
her bed, when the little party embarked on an Italian
boat and saw the East for the last time.

They had money, it is true. The Crown jewels,
personal heirlooms, and a sum of money which varied
with every report, had been smuggled out of the country.
At one time he appeared destitute. At other times,
he showed that he had considerable reserves. As the
liner ploughed her way towards his exile, he mapped
out his life anew, viewed ahead the quiet existence of
a private citizen, and cast in the wake of the throbbing
steamer the dreams of power and kingship.

Italy received him with tolerant and kindly hospitality.
He retired into obscurity, humbled and unambitious,
resurrected now and then as the central figure of
rumours that there would be a revival of his regime, but
leading a quiet life divorced from the former stress and
strain of Eastern politics.

251