Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/270

 the pride of that nobleman as the demand for the delivery of two of the ladies of his harem. The case was referred by the roused populace to the decision of the priests; and the chief mujtehed gave a fetwah, or statement of his opinion, that it was lawful to rescue from the hands of infidels two women professing the faith of Mahomed, and who belonged to the household of a true believer.

On being informed of the rising tumult, the Shah directed the Minister for Foreign Affairs to entreat the envoy to enter into some arrangement which might have the effect of calming the excited populace. M. Grebaiodoff agreed to do so on the following day; but this delay proved fatal to himself, and was the cause of an indelible disgrace befalling the people of the capital of Persia. Between eight and nine o'clock on the morning of the 11th of February, 1829, the bazaars of Tehran were closed, and the inhabitants flocked in wild confusion toward the residence of the Russian envoy, with the intention of taking the law into their own hands, releasing the disputed women, and seizing the eunuch Yakoob. No sooner had the crowd succeeded in forcing its way into the court of the house of the Russian Legation than the envoy's stern resolution at length gave way, and he ordered that the ladies should be restored to their lord. But a contest ensuing between some of his followers and the foremost of the crowd, who were dragging the eunuch towards them, a fatal shot was fired, by which a citizen of Tehran was killed. His body was forthwith conveyed to the neighbouring mosque, and there the bigoted priests proclaimed the disgrace that would follow the omission of exacting blood for the blood