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The Covenant- breakers were unappeased by the measures taken by the authorities against One Who had so magnanimously intervened on their behalf. Aided by the notorious Yahya Bey, the chief of police, and other officials, civil as well as military, who, in consequence of their representations, had replaced those who had been friendly to Abdu'l- Baha, and by secret agents who traveled back and forth between Akka and Constantinople, and who even kept a vigilant watch over everything that went on in His household, they arose to encompass His ruin. They lavished on officials gifts which included possessions sacred to the memory of Baha'u'llah, and shamelessly proffered to high and low alike bribes drawn, in some instances, from the sale of properties associated with Him or bestowed upon some of them by Abdu'l- Baha. Relaxing nothing of their efforts they pursued relentlessly the course of their nefarious activities, determined to leave no stone unturned until they had either brought about His execution or ensured His deportation to a place remote enough to enable them to wrest the Cause from His grasp. The Vali of Damascus, the Mufti of Beirut, members of the Protestant missions established in Syria and Akka, even the influential Shaykh Abu'l- Huda, in Constantinople, whom the Sultan held in as profound an esteem as that in which Muhammad Shah had held his Grand Vizir, Haji Mirza Aqasi, were, on various occasions, approached, appealed to, and urged to lend their assistance for the prosecution of their odious designs.
(265:1)
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