and in their homes.
There were at the time about 4,000 Russian soldiers, with two batteries
of artillery, in and around the city. Nearly I,000 of the _fidais_
("self-devoted") of Tabriz took refuge in an old citadel of stone and
mud, called the "Ark." They were without artillery or adequate
provisions, and were poorly armed, but it was certain death for one of
them to be seen on the streets.

The Russians bombarded the "Ark" for a day or more, killing a large
proportion of its defenders. The superior numbers and the artillery of
the Russians finally conquered, and there followed a reign of terror
during which no Persian's life or honor was safe. At one time during
this period the Russian Minister at Teheran, at the request of the
members of the Persian cabinet, who were horror-stricken and in fear of
their lives for having made terms with such a barbaric nation,
telegraphed to the Russian general in command of the troops at Tabriz,
telling him to cease fighting, and that the _fidais_ would receive
orders to do likewise, as matters were being arranged at the capital.
The gallant general replied that he took his orders from the Viceroy of
the Caucasus at Tiflis, and not from any one at Teheran. The massacre
went on.

On New Year's day, which was the 10th of _Muharram_, a day of great
mourning which is held sacred in the Persian religious calendar, the
Russian military governor, who had hoisted Russian flags over the
government buildings at Tabriz, hung the Sikutu'l-Islam, who was the
chief priest of Tabriz, two other priests, and five others, among them
several high officials of the Provincial Government. As one British
journalist put it, the effect of this outrage on the Persians was that
which would be produced on the English people by the hanging of the
Archbishop of Canterbury on Good Friday. From this time on, the
Russians at Tabriz continued to hang or shoot any Persian whom they
chose to consider guilty of the crime of being a "Constitutionalist."
When the fighting there was first reported, a high official of the
Foreign Office at St. Petersburg, in an interview to the press, made
the statement that Russia would take vengeance into her own hands until
the "revolutionary dregs" had been exterminated.

One more significant fact: At the same time that the fighting broke out
at Tabriz, the Russian troops at Resht and Enzeli, hundreds of miles
away, shot down the Persian police and many inhabitants without warning
o