On receiving the intelligence that the insurgents were marching on Medîna, Othmân ascended the pulpit of the Great Mosque and made known to the citizens the real object of attack. ‘It is against myself,’ he said; ‘soon they will look back with a longing eye to this my Caliphate, and wish that each day of the same had been a year in length, because of the tumult and bloodshed, anarchy and ungodliness, that will flood the land.’ The rebels were not long in making their appearance, and they pitched three camps, the men of Kûfa, Bussorah, and Egypt, each encamping separately, in the neighbourhood of Medîna.[478] The citizens put on their armour, a thing unheard of since the days of the Apostasy in the reign of Abu Bekr, and prepared for resistance. The insurgents, foiled thus far, sent deputies to the widows of Mahomet, and the chief men of the city. ‘We come,’ they said, ‘to visit the Prophet’s home and resting-place, and to ask that certain of the governors be deposed. Give us leave to enter.’ But leave was not granted. Then the insurgent bands despatched each a deputation to its respective candidate. Aly stormed at the messengers sent to him as soon as they appeared, and called them rebels accursed of the Prophet; and the others met with no better reception at the hands of Talha and Zobeir. Unable to gain over the citizens, without whose consent their object was out of reach, the rebel leaders declared themselves satisfied with a promise from the Caliph of reform, and, breaking up their camp, retired in the order in which they came. They made as if each company was taking its way home again, but really with the concerted plan of returning shortly, when they expected to find the city less prepared to resist.[479] The citizens cast aside their armour, rejoicing in the apparent deliverance from a pressing danger; and for some days things went on as before, Othmân leading the prayers. Suddenly, the three bands reappeared at the city gates. A party headed by Aly went forth to ask the reason. [Sidenote: They return with document bearing the Caliph’s seal.]The strangers pointed to a document attested by the Caliph’s seal; this, they said, had been taken from a servant of Othmân’s whom they caught hastening on the road to Egypt; and it contained orders that the insurgents were to be seized and imprisoned, some tortured, and some put to death. Aly, suspecting collusion, asked how the discovery made by the Egyptian company on the road to Fostât had become so promptly known to the others marching in quite a different direction, to Kûfa and Bussorah, as to bring them all back together? ‘Speak of it as ye will,’ they said, ‘here is the writing, and here the Caliph’s seal.’ Aly repaired to Othmân, who denied all knowledge of the document; but, with the view of clearing up the matter, consented to receive a deputation of the rebel leaders. Introduced by Aly, they made no obeisance to the Caliph, but with