Then abruptly the flash-point was reached. For some weeks an explosion had manifestly been growing inevitable, but what precisely caused it was never known. There was a sudden outbreak at Urmi—two days of sharp street fighting—and the Moslems were crushed decisively, and the Assyrians remained masters of the town.
Foiled utterly in open warfare, the Persians turned at once to their more familiar trade of treachery; and Mukht-i-Shems, the official representative of his nation, a Persian nobleman with an English education, wrote plainly to[{380}] Simco Agha to tell him that he might earn the gratitude of the Persian Government by the assassination of Mar Shimun. The Kurd took the hint promptly. He had already been growing uneasy at the conviction that after all he had espoused the losing side; and now he wrote to Mar Shimun (who by this time had returned to Salmas), requesting that he would meet him at a conference to discuss the new situation caused by the Russian debacle.
The trap was cunningly baited. Such a conference seemed not merely desirable, but imperative. What could be more natural under the circumstances than a meeting between two sworn allies? And Mar Shimun, accompanied by his brother David and a few other friends, drove out to the Armenian village of Koni Shehr, which was the appointed meeting-place.
There were whispers that treachery was intended. An Armenian villager was told by a friendly Kurd: “There is no danger for your folk”; and on this he at once sent off his son with a warning message, which was unhappily disregarded. As the party entered the house where the meeting was to be held, David pointed to a group of Kurds upon a neighbouring roof, and asked “what those fellows wanted.” But the Patriarch had seemingly determined that he must “trust all in all, or not at all.” “They only want to get a good view, I suppose,” he answered, and passed in.
Simco received him most cordially. The ceremonial hospitality, which throughout the East is held to set the seal of inviolability upon the guest’s person, was duly offered and accepted. The conference proceeded, and terminated without the least hint of disagreement; and Simco, with marked deference, conducted his guest to the door.
His turning back was the signal. There was a volley from the roof, and the Patriarch was shot dead. It was an almost literal repetition of the treachery perpetrated upon Simco’s own brother by the Vali Ahd eight years before. How David escaped is a mystery. He was wounded, but friendly Armenians snatched him into one of the adjoining houses and hid him till the search was over. In the ensuing confusion only one other member of the[{381}] party was actually killed and the rest succeeded in escaping.
The Patriarch’s body was treated with the grossest indignity—stripped, and flung out into the street. But afterwards it was reverently taken up by the Armenians and buried by their priest in the village church. In those medieval times to which Benyamin Mar Shimun belonged alike by character and training that church would be held to enshrine the relics of a martyr.
The almost incredulous fury with which the wild tribesmen learned the news of their beloved Patriarch’s murder can, perhaps, be barely imagined by people less primitive than they. In the first gust of their rage they began a massacre of the Kurds in Urmi; but this was quickly arrested by the interposition of their chiefs. Polus a younger brother, was chosen as the Patriarch’s successor; and under David and Khoshaba a strong force mustered to avenge his death.
With these two there marched a third leader. And among the many disreputable characters who “made good” during war-time, it can surely not be easy to find a parallel to Petros of Baz—that knavish exploiter of bogus Macedonian orphanages, whose shady antecedents were recounted on page 218. With the fruits of his youthful peculations he had acquired a prominent position in Urmi, no less than that of Ottoman consul. Thus, as soon as the war broke out, he was able to pose as a leader; and from the husk of a glib-tongued swindler there now emerged a born Captain of guerilleros, whose achievements during these later stages were among the most remarkable in the war. Like several others of his kidney, he has since (we regret to say) reverted. But assuredly, while the ball lasted it cannot be denied that this arch-thief showed a singularly handsome leg.
Simco’s army was thoroughly routed and his castle at Chara captured; but he himself unhappily escaped and has since been allowed even by the allies of his victim, to reap all the profits of his crime. In his house was found the actual letter which he had received from Mukht-i-Shems prompting him to the Patriarch’s murder. Can it be wondered that the wrath of the Assyrians burns yet[{382}] more hotly against the Persian than it does against the Turk?