Marwan ibn Uthman said:
When people swore the allegiance on the hands of Abu Bakr, ‘Ali (as), al-Zubair and al-Miqdad entered the house of Fatimah, peace be upon her, and refused to come out. So, Umar ibn al-Khattab said: “Set the house on fire upon them.” Then al-Zubair came out with his sword. So Abu Bakr said: “Catch this dog.” As they advanced towards him, he (al-Zubair) slipped and fell and the sword fell off his hand.
Then Abu Bakr said: “Hit him with the stone.” Zubair hit the stone till it broke.
‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) left the house from the direction of Aaliyah and met Thabit ibn Qays ibn Shammas. He said: “O Abul Hasan, what has happened to you?” He said: “They have resolved on burning down my house, while Abu Bakr is sitting on the pulpit, receiving allegiance, he neither prevents them for doing it nor is he condemning it.”
Thabit said: “My palm will not leave your hand, till I am killed by your side.” So they moved forward together till they came back towards Madinah while Fatimah (peace be upon her) stood at her door, and all of the people had left her house. She was saying: “I have not known of an assembly of people worse than you; you left the messenger of Allah unattended, when his corpse lay before us; you resolved about your affairs among yourselves, refusing to seek our leadership; and you did to us what you did, and you recognized no right for us.”