esteem in which Baha'u'llah was held by the consuls of foreign powers
stationed in Adrianople, they determined to take drastic and immediate
action which would extirpate that Faith, isolate its Author and reduce Him
to powerlessness. The indiscretions committed by some of its over-zealous
followers, who had arrived in Constantinople, no doubt, aggravated an
already acute situation.

The fateful decision was eventually arrived at to banish Baha'u'llah to
the penal colony of Akka, and Mirza Yahya to Famagusta in Cyprus. This
decision was embodied in a strongly worded Farman, issued by Sultan
'Abdu'l-'Aziz. The companions of Baha'u'llah, who had arrived in the
capital, together with a few who later joined them, as well as Aqa Jan,
the notorious mischief-maker, were arrested, interrogated, deprived of
their papers and flung into prison. The members of the community in
Adrianople were, several times, summoned to the governorate to ascertain
their number, while rumors were set afloat that they were to be dispersed
and banished to different places or secretly put to death.

Suddenly, one morning, the house of Baha'u'llah was surrounded by
soldiers, sentinels were posted at its gates, His followers were again
summoned by the authorities, interrogated, and ordered to make ready for
their departure. "The loved ones of God and His kindred," is Baha'u'llah's
testimony in the Suriy-i-Ra'is, "were left on the first night without
food... The people surrounded the house, and Muslims and Christians wept
over Us... We perceived that the weeping of the people of the Son
(Christians) exceeded the weeping of others-- a sign for such as ponder."
"A great tumult seized the people," writes Aqa Rida, one of the stoutest
supporters of Baha'u'llah, exiled with him all the way from Ba_gh_dad to
Akka, "All were perplexed and full of regret... Some expressed their
sympathy, others consoled us, and wept over us... Most of our possessions
were auctioned at half their value." Some of the consuls of foreign powers
called on Baha'u'llah, and expressed their readiness to intervene with
their respective governments on His behalf--suggestions for which He
expressed appreciation, but which He firmly declined. "The consuls of that
city (Adrianople) gathered in the presence of this Youth at the hour of
His departure," He Himself has written, "and expressed their desire to aid
Him. They, verily, evinced towards Us manifest affection."

The Persian Ambassador