Thus, even at Medîna, sedition spread, and from thence messages reached the provinces that the sword would soon be needed there at home, rather than in foreign parts. So general was the contagion that but few are named as having escaped it.[469] Moved by the leading citizens, Aly repaired to Othmân and said:--‘The people bid me expostulate with thee. Yet what can I say to thee--son-in-law as thou wast of the Prophet and his bosom friend--that thou already knowest not as well as I? The way lieth plain and wide before thee; but thine eyes are blinded that thou canst not see it. If blood be once shed, it will not cease to flow until the Day of Judgment. Right will be blotted out, and treason rage like the foaming waves of the sea.’ Othmân complained, and not without reason, of the unfriendly attitude assumed by Aly himself. ‘For my own part,’ he said, ‘I have done my best; and as for the men ye speak of, did not Omar himself appoint Moghîra to Kûfa; and if Ibn Aámir be my kinsman, is he any the worse for that?’ ‘No,’ replied Aly; ‘but Omar kept his lieutenants in order, and when they did wrong he punished them; whereas thou treatest them softly, because they are thy kinsmen.’[470] ‘And Muâvia, too,’ continued the Caliph; ‘it was Omar who appointed him to Syria.’ ‘Yes,’ answered Aly; ‘but I swear that even Omar’s slaves did not stand so much in awe of their master, as did Muâvia. But now he doth whatever he pleaseth, and saith _It is Othmân_. And thou, knowing it all, leavest him alone!’ So saying, Aly turned and went his way. [Sidenote: Othmân appeals to the people.]