d hardly have given him a higher position
than he held. But it is certain that his popularity gave umbrage at
Constantinople, the more so as Abd el Hamid could not and dared not
depose him. El Husseyn, too, became specially obnoxious to the
reactionary party, when it resolved at last to quarrel with England, for
he and his family persisted in remaining on friendly terms with the
British Government on all occasions when the interests of Indian
subjects of her Majesty's came in question at the Haj. For this reason,
principally, it would seem his death was resolved on to make room for
the agent of a new policy.

On the 14th of March, 1880, Jeddah was the scene of a solemn pageant.
The Haj was just over, and the seaport of Mecca crowded with pilgrims
was waiting for the Grand Sherif, the descendant of the prophet and the
representative of the Sacred House of Ali, to give the blessing of his
presence to the last departing votaries. Travelling by night from Mecca,
El Husseyn and his retinue appeared at dawn outside the city walls, and
when it was morning, mounted on a white mare from Nejd, and preceded by
his escort of Koreysh Arabs and the Sultan's guard of honour, he rode
into the town. The streets of Jeddah are narrow and tortuous, and the
way from the gate to the house of Omar Nassif, his agent, where he was
accustomed to alight, was thronged with pious folk, who struggled for
the privilege of kissing his feet and the hem of his Arab cloak. He had
nearly reached the place when an old beggar from the crowd pushed his
way forward asking loudly for alms in the name of God. It was an appeal
not to be denied, and as the Sherif turned to those near him to order a
contribution from the bag kept for such distributions, the old man rose
upon him, and drawing a ragged knife (so it was described to me) struck
him in the belly. At first, even those who saw the deed hardly knew what
had happened, for El Husseyn did not fall or dismount, and without
speaking rode on to the house. There he was lifted from his mare and
carried to an upper chamber, and in the course of some hours he expired.

Those nearest him, meanwhile, had seized and cudgelled the old man, and
some of the escort had taken him to the guard-house. When it became
known what had happened, a great cry arose in Jeddah, and old and young,
and women and children, and citizens and strangers wept together. I have
heard the scene described as one beyond description moving, and th