A Present to His Royal Highness - The Prince of Wales — Page 63
63 firmness and devotion and every one of them was only too ready and anxious to lay down his life for the Prophet of God. When the multitude, instead of calling upon the Maulawi to take the oath, threatened to attack and destroy the prophet of God, his twelve disciples formed a ring round him and these lion-hearted champions of God were daunted neither by the numbers nor by the arms of their opponents. At this stage the Superintendent of Police arrived with a force of a hundred constables and opened a way for him through the crowd and with great difficulty escorted him home ∗ But he was not safe even in his house, for the people were uncontrollable and sometimes entered the house by violence and sometimes obtained entry in the disguise of police officers. He, however, went on preaching, saying:—“God has sent me to deliver the captives, and to comfort those that are heavy laden and to relieve them of the burdens which men have put upon their backs. I have come to cleanse mankind from the leprosy of sin and to lead them back to God: I have come to remove hatred, jealousy, envy and strife and to establish peace, goodwill and love. ” While thus engaged he was constantly interrupted by ∗ The violent excitement which agitated Delhi in those days may be judged from the following incident:— Some ladies of the Promised Messiah’s family were staying in the house of a relative and a maid-servant who was employed in the house and was ignorant of their identity, told them that a false prophet had appeared in the town and that her son had gone armed with a knife to kill him to win spiritual reward. She was vastly pleased that her son should have a share in this holy undertaking, although she realised that if her son succeeded in carrying out his design he would render himself liable to be hanged under the British law.