Medîna was startled by the envoy’s cry, only as Mecca had been startled by the voice of Dham-dham at the battle of Bedr, four-and-thirty years before. The time was come when Aly could no longer put his decision off. Hasan, ever poor in spirit, counselled his father to wait; but Aly saw too plainly that the hour for action was now or never. He gave vent to his troubled soul in martial lines which were soon in everyone’s mouth, and from which the people first learned his resolve to make the sword the arbiter betwixt Muâvia and himself. An expedition against Syria was proclaimed. Captains were appointed to command the various companies of the expected levies, and banners were presented to them by Aly; but he was careful to name no one who had taken any part in the attack on Othmân.[500] Orders were also sent to Kûfa, Bussorah, and Egypt, to raise troops for the war. Having made these preparations, Aly mounted the pulpit and harangued the citizens of Medîna. If they failed to fight now, he told them, the power would pass away from them, never more to be regained. ‘Fight, then, against the cursed schismatics, who would destroy the unity of Islam and rend in twain the body of the Faithful. Haply the Lord will set that right which the nations of the earth are setting wrong.’ But the people did not respond to the appeal, and the ranks were slow of filling. [Sidenote: Talha and Zobeir depart to Mecca.] Talha and Zobeir, when they saw how affairs were drifting, again asked that they might be allowed to quit Medîna. With Aly’s leave, they now set out for Mecca, on pretext of performing the Lesser Pilgrimage. CHAPTER XXXVI. REBELLION AT BUSSORAH. A.H. XXXVI. A.D. 656. [Sidenote: Work nearer home.] But, before crossing arms with Muâvia, heavy work was still in store for Aly. [Sidenote: Ayesha retires to Mecca.] On her way back from the pilgrimage at Mecca, Ayesha was met by the tidings of Othmân’s murder and of Aly’s accession to the Caliphate. ‘Carry me back,’ forthwith cried the incensed and impetuous lady; ‘carry me back to Mecca. They have murdered the Caliph. I will avenge his blood.’ [Sidenote: And propagates sedition there.]