The factious spirits were emboldened by the outbreak; and discontent now found open and disloyal expression throughout the kingdom. Saîd, supported by the Coreishite nobility, appealed against their machinations to Othmân, who ordered that ten of the ringleaders should be expelled to Syria.[468] There the Caliph hoped that the powerful rule of his lieutenant and the loyal example of the Syrians would inspire the malcontents with better feelings. Muâvia quartered them in the church of St. Mary; and morning and evening, as he passed by, abused them roundly on their folly in setting up their crude claims against the indefeasible rights of the Coreish. Crest-fallen under several weeks of such treatment, they were sent on to Hims, where the governor, son of the great Khâlid, subjected them for a month to like indignities. Whenever he rode forth, he showered invectives on them as barbarous and factious creatures, who were doing all in their power to undermine the empire. Their spirit at last was thoroughly broken, and they professed to be repentant. They were then released; but, ashamed to return to Kûfa, they remained for the time in Syria, excepting the dangerous demagogue Ashtar, who made his way secretly to Medîna. [Sidenote: Saîd expelled from Kûfa. A.H. XXXIV. A.D. 655.] Months passed, and things did not mend at Kûfa. Most of the leading men, whose influence could have kept the populace in check, were away on military command in Persia; and the malcontents, in treasonable correspondence with the Egyptian faction, gained head daily. Disheartened at this, Saîd, in an unlucky moment, planned a visit to Medîna, there to lay his troubles before the Caliph. No sooner had he gone than the conspirators came to the front, and recalled the exiles from Syria. Ashtar, too, was soon upon the scene. Taking his stand at the door of the Great Mosque of Kûfa, he stirred up the people, as they assembled for worship, against Saîd: ‘He had just left that despot,’ he said, ‘at Medîna, plotting their ruin, counselling the Caliph to cut down their stipends, even the women’s; and calling the broad fields which they had conquered _The Garden of the Coreish_.’ The acting governor, helped by the better class of citizens, sought in vain to still the rising storm. He inculcated patience upon them. ‘Patience!’ cried Cacâa, the great warrior, in scorn; ‘ye might as well roll back the Great River when in flood as attempt to quell the people’s uproar till they have the thing they want.’ Yezîd, brother of one of the exiles, then raised a standard, and called upon all the enemies of the tyrannical governor to join and bar his return to Kûfa. When Saîd drew near, they marched out as far as Câdesîya, and sent forward to say that ‘they did not need him any more.’ Saîd, little expecting such a reception, said to them, ‘It had sufficed if ye had sent a delegate with your complaint to the Caliph; but now ye come forth a thousand