ies, and to assure to
each one of the exiles a complete freedom to choose between Him and them,
Baha'u'llah withdrew with His family to the house of Rida Big (_Sh_avval
22, 1282 A.H.), which was rented by His order, and refused, for two
months, to associate with either friend or stranger, including His own
companions. He instructed Aqay-i-Kalim to divide all the furniture,
bedding, clothing and utensils that were to be found in His home, and send
half to the house of Mirza Yahya; to deliver to him certain relics he had
long coveted, such as the seals, rings, and manuscripts in the handwriting
of the Bab; and to insure that he received his full share of the allowance
fixed by the government for the maintenance of the exiles and their
families. He, moreover, directed Aqay-i-Kalim to order to attend to Mirza
Yahya's shopping, for several hours a day, any one of the companions whom
he himself might select, and to assure him that whatever would henceforth
be received in his name from Persia would be delivered into his own hands.

"That day," Aqay-i-Kalim is reported to have informed Nabil, "witnessed a
most great commotion. All the companions lamented in their separation from
the Blessed Beauty." "Those days," is the written testimony of one of
those companions, "were marked by tumult and confusion. We were
sore-perplexed, and greatly feared lest we be permanently deprived of the
bounty of His presence."

This grief and perplexity were, however, destined to be of short duration.
The calumnies with which both Mirza Yahya and Siyyid Muhammad now loaded
their letters, which they disseminated in Persia and 'Iraq, as well as the
petitions, couched in obsequious language, which the former had addressed
to _Kh_ur_sh_id Pa_sh_a, the governor of Adrianople, and to his assistant
Aziz Pa_sh_a, impelled Baha'u'llah to emerge from His retirement. He was
soon after informed that this same brother had despatched one of his wives
to the government house to complain that her husband had been cheated of
his rights, and that her children were on the verge of starvation--an
accusation that spread far and wide and, reaching Constantinople, became,
to Baha'u'llah's profound distress, the subject of excited discussion and
injurious comment in circles that had previously been greatly impressed by
the high standard which His noble and dignified behavior had set in that
city. Siyyid Muhammad journeyed to the capital, begged the Persian
Ambassador, th