The Bábís would gladly have lived peacefully within the four walls they had erected around the shrine of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí. But the continuous clamouring of the divines, led by Sa`ídu'l-`Ulamá of Bárfurú[_sh_], and the despotic, obstinate and haughty nature of the Grand Vizier, combined to deny them peace and security. One army after another was sent to reduce them. In sorties from their fortress they inflicted heavy losses on the besieging forces, causing commanders to flee for their lives. Some of the commanders[FD] died on the battlefield, while Quddús, during one of the sorties, received a bullet wound in his mouth. [Footnote FD: Such as `Abdu'lláh [_Kh_]án-i-Turkamán and Ḥabíbu'lláh [_Kh_]án-i-Af[_gh_]án.] Bahá'u'lláh, accompanied by His brother Mírzá Yaḥyá, with Ḥájí Mírzá Jání of Ká[_sh_]án, and Mullá Báqir of Tabríz (one of the Letters of the Living), set out from Ṭihrán to join the defenders of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí, but they were intercepted and taken to Ámul. Bahá'u'lláh offered to bear the punishment intended for the others, and was bastinadoed. At dawn of February 2nd 1849, Mullá Ḥusayn led his last sortie. `Abbás-Qulí [_Kh_]án, in joint command of the Government forces, had climbed a tree and, picking out the figure of Mullá Ḥusayn on horseback, shot him in the chest. He did not know whom he had mortally wounded, until a timorous siyyid from Qum[FE] turned traitor and informed him. Mullá Ḥusayn was carried by his companions to the fort, where he died and was buried inside the shrine. He was thirty-five years old. Bahá'u'lláh wrote of him in the _Kitáb-i-Íqán--The Book of Certitude_:--'But for him, God would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended the throne of eternal glory.'[10] [Footnote FE: Mírzá Ḥusayn-i-Mutavallí.] Now Mírzá Muḥammad-Báqir-i-Qá'iní replaced Mullá Ḥusayn in leading the companions. But the end could not be far off. Of the three hundred and thirteen defenders of the fortress, a number had died, many were wounded, and a few wavered in their resolve. The pressure of the forces arrayed against them increased. Cannon were levelled at them. Food became scarce and they ate grass, leaves of trees, the skin and ground bone of their slaughtered horses, the boiled leather of their saddles. `Abdu'l-Bahá speaks of their sufferings in the _Memorials of the Faithful_: For eighteen days they remained without food. They lived on the leather of their shoes. This too was soon consumed, and they had nothing left but water. They drank a mouthful every morning, and lay famished and exhausted in their fort. When attacked, however, they would instantly spring to their feet, and manifest in the face of the enemy a magnificent courage and astonishing resistance.... Under such circumstances to maintain an unwavering faith and patience is extremely difficult, and to endure such dire afflictions a rare phenomenon.[11]