uhammad _Sh_ah was, in his turn, through the orders he had issued,
storing up for himself severe and inevitable disappointment, and paving
the way for his own ultimate downfall.

His orders to 'Ali _Kh_an, the warden of the fortress of Mah-Ku, were
stringent and explicit. On His way to that fortress the Bab passed a
number of days in Tabriz, days that were marked by such an intense
excitement on the part of the populace that, except for a few persons,
neither the public nor His followers were allowed to meet Him. As He was
escorted through the streets of the city the shout of "Allah-u-Akbar"
resounded on every side. So great, indeed, became the clamor that the town
crier was ordered to warn the inhabitants that any one who ventured to
seek the Bab's presence would forfeit all his possessions and be
imprisoned. Upon His arrival in Mah-Ku, surnamed by Him Jabal-i-Basit (the
Open Mountain) no one was allowed to see Him for the first two weeks
except His amanuensis, Siyyid Husayn, and his brother. So grievous was His
plight while in that fortress that, in the Persian Bayan, He Himself has
stated that at night-time He did not even have a lighted lamp, and that
His solitary chamber, constructed of sun-baked bricks, lacked even a door,
while, in His Tablet to Muhammad _Sh_ah, He has complained that the
inmates of the fortress were confined to two guards and four dogs.

Secluded on the heights of a remote and dangerously situated mountain on
the frontiers of the Ottoman and Russian empires; imprisoned within the
solid walls of a four-towered fortress; cut off from His family, His
kindred and His disciples; living in the vicinity of a bigoted and
turbulent community who, by race, tradition, language and creed, differed
from the vast majority of the inhabitants of Persia; guarded by the people
of a district which, as the birthplace of the Grand Vizir, had been made
the recipient of the special favors of his administration, the Prisoner of
Mah-Ku seemed in the eyes of His adversary to be doomed to languish away
the flower of His youth, and witness, at no distant date, the complete
annihilation of His hopes. That adversary was soon to realize, however,
how gravely he had misjudged both his Prisoner and those on whom he had
lavished his favors. An unruly, a proud and unreasoning people were
gradually subdued by the gentleness of the Bab, were chastened by His
modesty, were edified by His counsels, and instructed by His wisdom. They