Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/256

656] receive the rebel leaders. Introduced by ʿAlī they made no obeisance, but with defiant attitude recounted their pretended grievances. They had retired with the promise of redress, they said; but instead of redress, here was the Caliph's own servant whom they had caught hastening to Egypt with the treacherous document now produced. ʿOthmān swore solemnly that he knew nothing of it. "Then say who it was that wrote and sealed this order." "I know not," said the aged Caliph. "But it was passed off as thine; thy servant carried it; see, here is thy seal, and yet forsooth thou wast not privy to it!" Again ʿOthmān affirmed that it was even so. "Whether thou speakest truth," they cried in accents loud and rude, "or art a liar, either way, thou art unworthy of the Caliphate. We dare not leave the sceptre in the hands of one who, either knave or fool, is too weak to govern those about him. Resign, for the Lord hath deposed thee!" ʿOthmān made answer:—"The garment wherewith the Lord hath girded me I will in no wise put off; but any evil ye complain of, that I am ready to put away from me." It was all too late, they cried; he had often made, and as often broken, the promise to amend; they could no longer trust him; now they would fight until he abdicated, or else was slain. "Death," said ʿOthmān, gathering himself up with the firmness and dignity that marked his last days,—"death I prefer; as for fighting, I have said it already, my people shall not fight; had that been my desire, I had summoned legions to my side." The altercation becoming loud and violent, ʿAlī arose and departed to his home. The conspirators also retired to their fellows; but they had now