tending the public
bath, eluded the vigilance of the Babis in attendance, entered the bath
with a pistol concealed in his cloak, and confronted Baha'u'llah in the
inner chamber, only to discover that he lacked the courage to accomplish
his task. He himself, years later, related that on another occasion he was
lying in wait for Baha'u'llah, pistol in hand, when, on Baha'u'llah's
approach, he was so overcome with fear that the pistol dropped from his
hand; whereupon Baha'u'llah bade Aqay-i-Kalim, who accompanied Him, to
hand it back to him, and show him the way to his home.

Balked in his repeated attempts to achieve his malevolent purpose,
_Sh_ay_kh_ 'Abdu'l-Husayn now diverted his energies into a new channel. He
promised his accomplice he would raise him to the rank of a minister of
the crown, if he succeeded in inducing the government to recall
Baha'u'llah to Tihran, and cast Him again into prison. He despatched
lengthy and almost daily reports to the immediate entourage of the _Sh_ah.
He painted extravagant pictures of the ascendancy enjoyed by Baha'u'llah
by representing Him as having won the allegiance of the nomadic tribes of
'Iraq. He claimed that He was in a position to muster, in a day, fully one
hundred thousand men ready to take up arms at His bidding. He accused Him
of meditating, in conjunction with various leaders in Persia, an
insurrection against the sovereign. By such means as these he succeeded in
bringing sufficient pressure on the authorities in Tihran to induce the
_Sh_ah to grant him a mandate, bestowing on him full powers, and enjoining
the Persian 'ulamas and functionaries to render him every assistance. This
mandate the _Sh_ay_kh_ instantly forwarded to the ecclesiastics of Najaf
and Karbila, asking them to convene a gathering in Kazimayn, the place of
his residence. A concourse of _sh_ay_kh_s, mullas and mujtahids, eager to
curry favor with the sovereign, promptly responded. Upon being informed of
the purpose for which they had been summoned, they determined to declare a
holy war against the colony of exiles, and by launching a sudden and
general assault on it to destroy the Faith at its heart. To their
amazement and disappointment, however, they found that the leading
mujtahid amongst them, the celebrated _Sh_ay_kh_ Murtaday-i-Ansari, a man
renowned for his tolerance, his wisdom, his undeviating justice, his piety
and nobility of character, refused, when apprized of their designs, to
pronounce t