security; whilst A_dh_irbayjan was destined to become the theatre of His
agony and martyrdom. These concluding years of His earthly life will go
down in history as the time when the new Dispensation attained its full
stature, when the claim of its Founder was fully and publicly asserted,
when its laws were formulated, when the Covenant of its Author was firmly
established, when its independence was proclaimed, and when the heroism of
its champions blazed forth in immortal glory. For it was during these
intensely dramatic, fate-laden years that the full implications of the
station of the Bab were disclosed to His disciples, and formally announced
by Him in the capital of A_dh_irbayjan, in the presence of the Heir to the
Throne; that the Persian Bayan, the repository of the laws ordained by the
Bab, was revealed; that the time and character of the Dispensation of "the
One Whom God will make manifest" were unmistakably determined; that the
Conference of Bada_sh_t proclaimed the annulment of the old order; and
that the great conflagrations of Mazindaran, of Nayriz and of Zanjan were
kindled.

And yet, the foolish and short-sighted Haji Mirza Aqasi fondly imagined
that by confounding the plan of the Bab to meet the _Sh_ah face to face in
the capital, and by relegating Him to the farthest corner of the realm, he
had stifled the Movement at its birth, and would soon conclusively triumph
over its Founder. Little did he imagine that the very isolation he was
forcing upon his Prisoner would enable Him to evolve the System designed
to incarnate the soul of His Faith, and would afford Him the opportunity
of safeguarding it from disintegration and schism, and of proclaiming
formally and unreservedly His mission. Little did he imagine that this
very confinement would induce that Prisoner's exasperated disciples and
companions to cast off the shackles of an antiquated theology, and
precipitate happenings that would call forth from them a prowess, a
courage, a self-renunciation unexampled in their country's history. Little
did he imagine that by this very act he would be instrumental in
fulfilling the authentic tradition ascribed to the Prophet of Islam
regarding the inevitability of that which should come to pass in
A_dh_irbayjan. Untaught by the example of the governor of _Sh_iraz, who,
with fear and trembling, had, at the first taste of God's avenging wrath,
fled ignominiously and relaxed his hold on his Captive, the Grand Vizir of
M