It is reported that upon receipt of this first Message that
superficial, tricky, and pride-intoxicated monarch [Napoleon III] flung down
the Tablet saying: “If this man is God, I am two gods!” The transmitter of the
second Tablet had, it is reliably stated, in order to evade the strict
surveillance of the guards, concealed it in his hat, and was able to deliver it
to the French agent, who resided in Akká, and who, as attested by Nabíl in his
Narrative, translated it into French and sent it to the Emperor, he himself
becoming a believer when he had later witnessed the fulfillment of so
remarkable a prophecy….
The Battle of Sedan in 1870 sealed the fate of the French
Emperor. The whole of his army was broken up and surrendered, constituting the
greatest capitulation hitherto recorded in modern history. A crushing indemnity
was exacted. He himself was taken prisoner. His only son, the Prince Imperial,
was killed, a few years later, in the Zulu War. The Empire collapsed, its
program unrealized. The Republic was proclaimed. Paris was subsequently
besieged and capitulated.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘Promised Day Is Come’)
