The Second Tablet to Napoleon III

In the third volume of The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, Adib Taherzadeh writes of the second of the two Tablets that Bahá’u’lláh addressed to Napoleon III, Emperor of the French.

The first Tablet had been revealed in Adrianople and forwarded to the Emperor through one of his ministers. Wishing to test the sincerity of the Emperor’s motives, Bahá’u’lláh had written in a meek and unprovocative tone. He recalled two statements of the Emperor: that the cry of the oppressed drowned in the Black Sea had moved him to go to war in the Crimea, and that it was his responsibility to avenge the oppressed and succour the helpless. He then appealed to him to inquire into the condition of the exiles, than whom none on earth were more oppressed.

No reply came. After Bahá’u’lláh’s arrival in ‘Akká, a letter from the minister told Him that the Tablet had been delivered but no answer received. The Emperor is reported to have flung the Tablet down, saying: If this man is God, I am two gods!

The second Tablet, revealed in Arabic and sent in 1869, is entirely different in tone. It opens: O King of Paris! Tell the priest to ring the bells no longer. It tells the Emperor that it was not the cry of the oppressed that had wakened him but the promptings of his own passions, and that had he been sincere he would not have cast behind his back the Book of God when it was sent to him. Then it pronounces:

For what thou hast done, thy kingdom shall be thrown into confusion, and thine empire shall pass from thine hands, as a punishment for that which thou hast wrought.

Commotions shall seize all the people in that land, it continues, unless thou arisest to help this Cause. It also asks: Hath thy pomp made thee proud? By My Life! It shall not endure.

The Tablet was carried out of the prison by a man who hid it in his hat, and was delivered to the French consular agent in ‘Akká, Louis Catafago, who translated it into French and sent it to the Emperor. Taherzadeh records that the agent’s son became a believer when he saw how quickly its prophecies were fulfilled.

The prophecies were soon fulfilled. In July 1870 France went to war with Prussia. At Sedan, at the beginning of September, the French army was defeated and surrendered, and the Emperor himself was taken prisoner. The Second Empire collapsed and a Republic was proclaimed in Paris. Napoleon III spent the rest of his life in exile in England, where he died at Chislehurst in 1873; his only son, the Prince Imperial, was killed a few years later in the Zulu War. The Bonaparte dynasty never regained the throne.

A retelling based on The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Vol. 3 — 'Akká, the Early Years (Adib Taherzadeh). For the fuller account, see the original.

Taherzadeh, A.. (1983). *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh (Vol. 3 — 'Akká, the Early Years)*. George Ronald.