tyrdom of his beloved Master,
driven by a frenzy of despair to avenge that odious deed, and believing
the author and instigator of that crime to be none other than the _Sh_ah
himself, a certain Sadiq-i-Tabrizi, an assistant in a confectioner's shop
in Tihran, proceeded on an August day (August 15, 1852), together with his
accomplice, an equally obscure youth named Fathu'llah-i-Qumi, to Niyavaran
where the imperial army had encamped and the sovereign was in residence,
and there, waiting by the roadside, in the guise of an innocent bystander,
fired a round of shot from his pistol at the _Sh_ah, shortly after the
latter had emerged on horseback from the palace grounds for his morning
promenade. The weapon the assailant employed demonstrated beyond the
shadow of a doubt the folly of that half-demented youth, and clearly
indicated that no man of sound judgment could have possibly instigated so
senseless an act.

The whole of Niyavaran where the imperial court and troops had congregated
was, as a result of this assault, plunged into an unimaginable tumult. The
ministers of the state, headed by Mirza Aqa _Kh_an-i-Nuri, the
I'timadu'd-Dawlih, the successor of the Amir-Nizam, rushed horror-stricken
to the side of their wounded sovereign. The fanfare of the trumpets, the
rolling of the drums and the shrill piping of the fifes summoned the hosts
of His Imperial Majesty on all sides. The _Sh_ah's attendants, some on
horseback, others on foot, poured into the palace grounds. Pandemonium
reigned in which every one issued orders, none listened, none obeyed, nor
understood anything. Ardi_sh_ir Mirza, the governor of Tihran, having in
the meantime already ordered his troops to patrol the deserted streets of
the capital, barred the gates of the citadel as well as of the city,
charged his batteries and feverishly dispatched a messenger to ascertain
the veracity of the wild rumors that were circulating amongst the
populace, and to ask for special instructions.

No sooner had this act been perpetrated than its shadow fell across the
entire body of the Babi community. A storm of public horror, disgust and
resentment, heightened by the implacable hostility of the mother of the
youthful sovereign, swept the nation, casting aside all possibility of
even the most elementary inquiry into the origins and the instigators of
the attempt. A sign, a whisper, was sufficient to implicate the innocent
and loose upon him the most abominable afflictions. A