eth what befell Us in that
most foul-smelling and gloomy place!" "'Abdu'l-Baha," writes Dr. J.E.
Esslemont, "tells how one day He was allowed to enter the prison-yard to
see His beloved Father when He came out for His daily exercise.
Baha'u'llah was terribly altered, so ill He could hardly walk. His hair
and beard unkempt, His neck galled and swollen from the pressure of a
heavy steel collar, His body bent by the weight of His chains." "For three
days and three nights," Nabil has recorded in his chronicle, "no manner of
food or drink was given to Baha'u'llah. Rest and sleep were both
impossible to Him. The place was infested with vermin, and the stench of
that gloomy abode was enough to crush the very spirits of those who were
condemned to suffer its horrors." "Such was the intensity of His suffering
that the marks of that cruelty remained imprinted upon His body all the
days of His life."

And what of the other tribulations which, before and immediately after
this dreadful episode, touched Him? What of His confinement in the home of
one of the kad-_kh_udas of Tihran? What of the savage violence with which
He was stoned by the angry people in the neighborhood of the village of
Niyala? What of His incarceration by the emissaries of the army of the
_Sh_ah in Mazindaran, and His receiving the bastinado by order, and in the
presence, of the assembled siyyids and mujtahids into whose hands He had
been delivered by the civil authorities of Amul? What of the howls of
derision and abuse with which a crowd of ruffians subsequently pursued
Him? What of the monstrous accusation brought against Him by the Imperial
household, the Court and the people, when the attempt was made on the life
of Nasiri'd-Din _Sh_ah? What of the infamous outrages, the abuse and
ridicule heaped on Him when He was arrested by responsible officers of the
government, and conducted from Niyavaran "on foot and in chains, with
bared head and bare feet," and exposed to the fierce rays of the midsummer
sun, to the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran? What of the avidity with which corrupt
officials sacked His house and carried away all His possessions and
disposed of His fortune? What of the cruel edict that tore Him from the
small band of the Bab's bewildered, hounded, and shepherdless followers,
separated Him from His kinsmen and friends, and banished Him, in the depth
of winter, despoiled and defamed, to 'Iraq?

Severe as were these tribulations which succeeded one another