feveral other leading men among the Tigrans. I f the devil
can fpeak true, here fine ly was one example o f it, Gondar
that very day had proved fatal to the Ras ; and Kefla Ya-
fous himfelf told me, long after Michael was gone, and all
was peace, that having vifited him that very evening he left
Debra Berhan, Michael had privately upbraided him with
having prevented his burning the town, and told him, that
his guardian fpirit, Saint Michael the archangel, or the devil,
or whatever we may pleafe to call it, had left him, and
never appeared to him again fince he had palled the river
Tacazzé on his return to Gondar ; and to this he attributed
his prefent misfortunes.'
A l l the k in g ’s arms were furrenderéd with the reft, and
Kefla Yafous was the only man that remained unfdbdued,
a diftinftion due to his fuperlative merit, and preferved to-
him by his enemies themfelves in the very heat o f con-
queft.
As for the Ras, he had continued in the houfe belonging
to his office, vifited only by fome private friends, but had
fent Gzoro Efther to the Iteghé’s at Kofcam, as foon as he
entered Gondar. He ate, drank, and flept as ufual, and rea-
fbned upon the event that had happened with great equanimity
andfeeming indifference. There was no appearance
o f guards fet upon him ; but every motion and look were
privately, but ftri&ly watched. The next day, when he
heard how ill his difarmed men were treated by the populace,
when they were difmiffed to T igré, he burft into tears,
and cried out in great agony, Had I died before this I had
been happy. He played no more at drafts, b y which game
formerly he pretended to divine the iffue o f every affair o f
confequence,
confequence, but gave his draft-board and men to a private
friend ; at the fame time renouncing his pretended divinations,
as deceitfufand finful, by the confidence he had placed
in them'.
T he kin g behaved with the greateft firmnefs and compo-
fure ; he was indeed graver than ufual, and talked lefs, but
was nor at all dejeCted. Scarce any body came near him
the firft day, or even the fecond, excepting the priefts, fome
o f the judges, and old inhabitants o f the town, who had
taken no part. Some o f the priefts" and monks, as is their
cuftom, ufed certain liberties, -and mixed a confiderable degree
o f impertinence in their converfations, h in tin g it as
doubtful, w hether he would remain on the throne, and mentioning
it, as on the, part o f the people, that he had imbibed
from Michael a propenfity towards cru elty and bloodffied,
what fome months ago no man in G-ondar dared to have iur-
mifed for his life. Thefe he only anfwered with a very fevere
look, but faid nothing. One o f thefe fpeeches being reported
to Gulho, not as a complaint from the king, but through
a by-ftander who heard it, that nobleman ordered the offender
(a prieft o f Erba Tenfa, a church in Woggoraj to be
ftript naked to his waift, and Whipt with thongs three times
round Aylo Meidan, till his b a ck ' was bloody, for this violation
o f the majefty o f the fovereign: and this example,
which met with the public approbation Of all parties, the
clergy only excepted, very miich leffened that infolence
which the k in g ’s misfortunes had excited.
He had ate nothing the firft day blit a fmall piece o f
wheat-loaf, dividing the reft among the few fervants that
G S 2 attended