A f t e r thefe appointments, which were not difputed with
him, though otherwise very much againft the kin g’s inclination,
Fafil retired with his army to Maitiha.
I n the mean time, Gulho fet every thing to fale, content
w ith the money the offices produced, and what he could
fqueeze from people who had crimes, real or alledged, to
compound for. He did not perceive that fteps were taking
by his enemies which would foon deprive him o f all the advantages
he enjoyed. Inflead o f attending to this, he amu-
fed himfelf with mortifying the Iteghe, whofe daughter, Wel-
leta Ifrael, he had formerly married, but who had long le ft
him by the perfuafion o f her mother. He thought it was an
affront to his dignity that the k in g had pardoned Likaba
Beecho, and Palambaras Mammo, the very day after he had
forbid them to enter the tow n ; and, what was ftill flronger,
that the k in g , without his confent, had fent an invitation to’
the Iteghe to return to Gondar, and govern, as his mother,
to the extent ihe did in the time o f Joas ; he refolved therefore
to attempt the creating a mifunderfianding between
the k in g and queen, a matter not very difficult in itfelf to
bring about.
G u s h o had confifcated, in the name o f the king, all the
queen’s villages, which made her believe that this offer o f
the k in g to bring her to Gondar was an infidious one. In
order to make the breach .the wider, he had alfo prevailed
upon the,king’s mother to come to Gondar, and infill with
her fon to be crowned, and take the title and flate o f Iteghe.
T h e k tng was prevailed upon to gratify his mother, under
pretence that the Iteghe had refufed to come upon his invitation
; but this, as it was a pretence only, fo it was exprefsly
prefsly a violation o f the law o f the land, which permits but
one Iteghe, and never allows the nomination o f a new one
while the former is in life, however diftant a relation flie
may be to the then reigning k ing. In confequence o f this
new coronation, two large villages, Tfhemmera and Tocufla,
which belonged to the Iteghe as appendages o f her royalty,
o f courfedevolved upon the kin g’s own mother, newly crowned,
who fending her people to take poffeffion, the inhabitants
not only refufed to admit her officers, but forcibly drove
them away, declaring they would acknowledge no other
miftrefs but their o ld one, to whom they were bound by the
laws o f the land.
I f Gufho, in this manner, dealt hardly with the queen,
his behaviour to the k in g was neither more juft nor generous
: he had not only failed toadvance any gold for the
k in g ’s fubfiilence, but had intercepted that part o f his revenue
which he knew was ready to be paid him, and in the
hands o f others o f his fubjects. A flated daily allowance
was, indeed, delivered to the k in g in kind for the maintenance
o f his houfehold, but even this was fmaller than had
been fettled by Ras Michael j befides which, 120 jars o f honey,
being one day fent the k in g from Damot, and at the
fame time 1000 cotton coats from Walkayt, both thefe were
feized upon by Guiho, without any part being offered to
the king, who thereupon determined to break with him, as
did the Iteghe from the former provocation.
A y a b d a r , never reconciled to him before the battle o f
Serbraxos, had freih reaion o f difference with him from an
unequal diftribution o f Ras Michael’s effedls, while Enge-
dan, who had been promifed the province o f Kuara, and
t Athotja