Bruce accompanies the King's Army, and returns with it to Gondar.

By the queen's permission, Bruce for a short time took up his abode at Emfras, situated on the east side of Tzana, the greatest lake in Abyssinia, being about fifty miles long, thirty-five broad, and containing several islands.

On the 13th of May, 1770, the king's army approached the town of Emfras, which in a few hours was completely deserted; for, although Ras Michael was strict, and even just, in time of peace, yet it was known that, the moment he took the field, like the tiger roused from his lair, he became licentious and cruel. The Mohammedan town near the water was plundered in a moment, and some of the straggling troops came even to Bruce's residence to demand meat and drink. He therefore thought it prudent at once to repair to the king, and accordingly, the next morning at daybreak he mounted his horse, and in a few hours reached the tents of his majesty and Ras Michael, which were placed about five hundred yards asunder—no one daring to stand, or even pass between them.

Although Bruce's appointment gave him a right of access at all times to the king, he did not choose at that moment to enter the royal presence, but preferred going to the tent of his kind and lovely friend, Ozoro Esther, where he was sure, at least, of getting a good breakfast and meeting with a warm reception. As soon as Ozoro Esther saw Bruce, she exclaimed, "There is Yagoube! there is the man I wanted!" The tent was cleared of all but her women, and she began to tell Bruce of several complaints which she seemed to think would, before the end of the campaign, carry her to her grave. "It was easy to see," says Bruce, "that they were of the slightest kind, though it would not have been agreeable to have told her so, for she loved to be thought ill, to be attended, condoled with, and flattered!" After giving to his interesting patient both advice and prescriptions, the doors of the tent were thrown open, and an abundant breakfast was displayed in wooden platters on the carpet.

The Abyssinian gourmands say "that you should plant first and then water," which means that nobody should drink till he has finished eating. Stewed fowls, highly seasoned with Cayenne pepper, roasted Guinea-hens, and the never-failing brind or raw beef, were eaten, therefore, in great quantities; after which wine, a beer called bouza, and hydromel, were drunk in equal proportion. Ozoro Esther, leaning forward from her sofa, kindly reminded her guests that their time was short, and that the drum would soon give the signal for striking the tents. From this scene Bruce escaped to the king, where he learned that Fasil was preparing to repass the Nile into the country of the Galla.

The next morning the king marched, and then remained for two days encamped on the banks of the Nile, where the following circumstance occurred. Old Ras Michael had long endeavoured to get possession of Welleta Israel, a sister of his own wife, Ozoro Esther. She now again refused his unnatural addresses, on which he was heard to say that he would order her eyes to be put out.

Welleta Israel was at this time in the camp with her sister Ozoro Esther. In the evening a small tent suddenly appeared on the opposite side of the Nile, which was not only both broad and deep, but, with its prodigious mass of water, a number of large, slippery stones were rolling along at the bottom of the river. In the dead of the night Welleta Israel escaped, and in the morning she and the tent had equally disappeared. To the astonishment of every one, it was found that she had actually crossed the river, having fled from the vengeance of the ras with an intrepid conductor, her own nephew.

The next morning the king crossed the Nile at a pass, and encamped on the other side, near a small village called Tsoomwa, where his fit-auraris had taken post early in the morning. The fit-auraris (which means, literally, front of the army) is an officer in the Abyssinian service, dependant only on the commander of the forces. He is always selected from the bravest, most robust, and most experienced men in the army. His duty is to mark out by a lance the position most proper for the king's tent: he is expected also to know the depth of the rivers, the state of the fords, the extent and thickness of the woods, and, in short, to be acquainted generally with the geography and state of the country. The governor of every province has an officer of this description. The fit-auraris, therefore, may be compared to an officer of the quarter-master-general's department in an European army.

From Tsoomwa the king marched to Derdera, and being now in the territory of his enemy, the whole country was set on fire. Those who could not escape were slain, and all sorts of wanton barbarities were perpetrated.

The king's passage of the Nile was the signal agreed upon for Bruce to set out from Emfras to join him. Accompanied by Strates, a Greek, and other attendants, he travelled for several days, encountering many hardships and dangers: at last he met with his friend Negade Ras Mohammed (the chief of the Moors of Gondar), to whom he expressed his ardent desire to be enabled to visit the neighbouring cataract of the Nile. "Unless you had told me you was resolved," said Mohammed, with a grave, thoughtful air, though full of openness and candour, "I would, in the first place, have advised you not to think of such an undertaking. Again, if anything was to befall you, what should I answer to the king and the iteghe? It would be said the Turk has betrayed him!"

"Mohammed," said Bruce, "you need not dwell on these professions; I have lived twelve years with people of your religion, my life always in their power, and I am now in your house, in preference to being in a tent out of doors with Netcho and his Christians. I do not ask you whether I am to go or not, for that is resolved on; and, though you are a Mohammedan and I a Christian, no religion teaches a man to do evil. We both agree in this, that God, who has protected me thus far, is capable to protect me likewise at the cataract, and farther, if he has not determined otherwise for my good. I only ask you, as a man who knows the country, to give me your best advice how I may satisfy my curiosity in this point with as little danger and as much expedition as possible, leaving the rest to Heaven." Mohammed accordingly promised to send his son and four of his servants to protect Bruce; he then took leave of him, saying with much feeling, "Do not stay! return immediately, and—Ullah Kerim (God is merciful)!"

Early next morning Bruce mounted his horse, and, accompanied by four active, resolute young men, proceeded very rapidly. In a few hours they came in sight of a considerable village; and, as they were proceeding to call upon the chief or shum, they were surrounded by several of his servants, who seemed desirous to pay them every possible respect.

Bruce happened to be on a very steep part of the hill, full of bushes; and one of the shum's servants, dressed in the Arabian fashion, in a bornoose, and turban striped white and green, led his horse, to prevent his slipping, till he got into the path leading to the shum's door; when, all of a sudden, the fellow exclaimed in Arabic, "Good Lord! to see you here! Good Lord! to see you here!" Bruce asked him to whom he was speaking, and what reason he had to wonder to see him there. The man then told him that he was on board the Lion when Bruce's little vessel, all covered with sail, passed with such briskness among the English ships, which all fired their cannon; "and," added he, "everybody said, there is a poor man making a great haste to be assassinated among those wild people in Habbesh; and so we all thought." He concluded with saying, "Drink! no force! Englishman very good! drink no good!"

As soon as the horses were fed, Bruce would stay no longer, but mounted to proceed to the cataract. They first came to the bridge, which consists of a single arch of about twenty-five feet broad, the extremities of which were let into and strongly fastened to the solid rock on both sides. The Nile here is confined between two rocks, and runs in a deep ravine with great velocity, and a deep, roaring sound. They were obliged to remount the stream above half a mile before they came to the cataract, through trees and bushes of most beautiful appearance.

"The cataract itself," says Bruce, "was the most magnificent sight that ever I beheld. The height has been rather exaggerated. The missionaries say the fall is about sixteen ells, or fifty feet. The measuring is indeed very difficult; but, by the position of long sticks and poles of different lengths, at different heights of the rock, from the water's edge, I may venture to say, that it is nearer forty feet than any other measure. The river had been considerably increased by rains, and fell in one sheet of water, without any interval, above half an English mile in breadth, with a force and noise that was truly terrible, and which stunned, and made me, for a time, perfectly dizzy. A thick fume or haze covered the fall all round, and hung over the course of the stream both above and below, marking its track, though the water was not seen. The river, though swelled with rain, preserved its natural clearness, and fell, as far as I could discern, into a deep pool or basin in the solid rock. It was a magnificent sight, that ages, added to the greatest length of human life, would not efface or eradicate from my memory; it struck me with a kind of stupor, and a total oblivion of where I was, and of every other sublunary concern. It was one of the most magnificent, stupendous sights in the creation.

"I measured the fall, and believe, within a few feet, it was the height I have mentioned; but I confess I could at no time in my life less promise upon precision; my reflection was suspended or subdued; and, while in sight of the fall, I think I was under a temporary alienation of mind; it seemed to me as if one element had broke loose from, and become superior to, all laws of subordination; that the fountains of the great deep were again extraordinarily opened, and the destruction of a world was once more begun by the agency of water."

From the cataract Bruce returned to the house of his Moorish friend Negade Ras Mohammed, and on the 22d of May he resumed his journey to join the king. After passing a number of hills covered with trees and shrubs of indescribable beauty and extraordinary fragrance, he descended towards the passage of the Nile. Here he experienced the use of Mohammed's servants, three of whom, each with a lance in one hand, holding that of his companion in the other, waded across the violent stream, sounding with the end of their lances every step they took.

"From the passage to Tsoomwa," says Bruce, "all the country was forsaken, the grass trodden down, and the fields without cattle. Everything that had life and strength fled before that terrible leader (Ras Michael) and his no less terrible army: a profound silence was in the fields around us, but no marks yet of desolation." After travelling two days under a very hot sun, they came to a flat country, which, from the constant rains that now fell, began to stand in large pools, threatening to turn it all into a lake.

"We had hitherto," says Bruce, "lost none of the beasts of carriage, but now were so impeded by streams, brooks, and quagmires, that we despaired of ever bringing one of them to join the camp. The horses and beasts of burden that carried the baggage of the army, and which had passed before us, had spoiled every ford, and we saw to-day a number of dead mules lying about the fields, the houses all reduced to ruins, and smoking like so many kilns: even the grass or wild oats, which were grown very high, were burned in large plots of a hundred acres together; everything bore the marks that Ras Michael was gone before, while not a living creature appeared in those extensive, fruitful, and once well-inhabited plains. An awful silence reigned everywhere around, interrupted only at times by thunder, now become daily, and the rolling of torrents, produced by local showers in the hills, which ceased with the rain, and were but the children of an hour. Amid this universal silence that prevailed all over this scene of extensive desolation, I could not help remembering how finely Mr. Gray paints the passage of such an army under a leader like Ras Michael:

As they advanced, they passed a great number of dead mules and horses; "and the hyÆnas," says Bruce, "were so bold as only to leave the carcass for a moment and snarl, as if they regretted to see any of us pass alive."

"Since passing the Nile," continues Bruce, "I found myself more than ordinarily depressed; my spirits were sunk almost to a degree of despondency, and yet nothing had happened since that period more than what was expected before. This disagreeable situation of mind continued at night while I was in bed. The rashness and imprudence with which I had engaged myself in so many dangers, without any necessity for so doing; the little prospect of my being ever able to extricate myself out of them, or even, if I lost my life, of the account being conveyed to my friends at home; the great and unreasonable presumption which had led me to think that, after every one that had attempted this voyage had miscarried in it, I was the only person that was to succeed; all these reflections upon my mind, when relaxed, dozing, and half oppressed with sleep, filled my imagination with what I have heard other people call the horrors, the most disagreeable sensation I ever was conscious of, and which I then felt for the first time. Impatient of suffering any longer, I leaped out of bed and went to the door of the tent, where the outward air perfectly awakened me, and restored my strength and courage. All was still; and at a distance I saw several bright fires, but lower down, and more to the right than I expected, which made me think I was mistaken in the situation of Karcagna. It was then near four in the morning of the 25th. I called up my companions, happily buried in deep sleep, as I was desirous, if possible, to join the king that day."

If the reader will but recall to mind the picture of Bruce's personal appearance on his arrival at Jidda on the Red Sea—how much he was shaken by the fatigue he had even at that period undergone, and will then reflect on the wear and tear of constitution which he had since suffered, he will comprehend, better than Bruce himself seems to have done, why his spirits now began to fail him, and why, like an exhausted taper, life burned dimly in the socket.

Bruce and his party were three or four miles from Derdera when the sun rose: there had been little rain that night, and they found very few torrents in their way; but it was slippery and troublesome walking, the rich soil being trodden into mire. About seven o'clock they entered the broad plain of Maitsha, leaving the lake behind them. Here great part of the country was in tillage, and had been apparently covered with plentiful crops; but all had been cut down by the army for their horses, or, out of recklessness or vengeance, trodden under foot, so that a green blade could scarcely be seen. They met a number of persons this day, chiefly straggling soldiers, who, in parties of three and four, were seeking, in all the bushes and concealed parts of the river, for the miserable natives who had hidden themselves therein; and in this dreadful occupation many had been successful. Some of them had three, some four women, boys, and girls, whom, though Christians like themselves, they were hurrying along, to sell to the Turks for a very small price.

A little before nine Bruce heard the report of a gun, which gave his party great joy, as they supposed the army not to be far off; a few minutes after they heard several single shots, and in less than a quarter of an hour a general firing began from right to left, which ceased for an instant, and then was heard again as smart as ever.

Thinking that the army was beaten and retreating, Bruce and his party mounted their horses to join it. Still it appeared to them scarcely possible that Fasil should defeat Ras Michael so easily, and with so short a resistance.

They had not gone far in the plain before, to their great surprise and delight, they had a sight of the enemy. A multitude of deer, buffaloes, boars, and various other wild beasts, alarmed by the noise of the army as it advanced, had been gradually driven before it.

The whole country was overgrown with wild oats, many of the villages having been burned the year before; and in this shelter the wild animals had taken up their abode in very great numbers. As the army turned to the left towards Karcagna, the silence and solitude on the opposite side induced these animals to turn to the right, where the Nile makes a very large semicircle, the Jemma being behind them, and much overflowed. When the army, therefore, instead of marching southeasterly towards Samseen, directed its course northwest, they fell in with these immense herds of deer and other beasts, who, confined between the Nile, the Jemma, and the lake, had no way to return but by the one they had come. Finding themselves encountered by men in every direction, they became desperate; and, not knowing what course to take, they at length fell an easy prey. The soldiers, happy at the opportunity of procuring animal food, fired upon the beasts wherever they appeared; and this continued for nearly an hour. A numerous herd of the largest deer, called bohur, met Bruce and his party at full speed, apparently intending to run them down; some forced their way through, while others escaped across the plain.

The king and Ras Michael were in the most violent agitation of mind; for, though the cause of the firing was before their eyes, it was at this moment reported that Woodage Asahel had attacked the army; and this occasioned a general panic, every one being convinced that he was not far off. The firing, however, continued; the balls flew in every direction; some few were killed, and many soldiers and horses were wounded: still they continued to fire, while Ras Michael stood at the door of his tent, crying, threatening, and tearing his gray locks at finding that the army was not under his command. The king, however, now ordered his tent to be pitched, his standard to be set up, his drums to beat (the signal for encamping), and then the firing immediately ceased. But it was a long while before all the army could be made to believe that Woodage Asahel had not been engaged with some part of it that day. Fortunately, he was not in a situation to avail himself of this favourable opportunity; for if he had then attacked Michael on the Samseen side with five hundred horse, the whole army would probably have fled without resistance, and been entirely dispersed.

Bruce was making his way towards the king's tent when he was met by a confidential servant of Kefla Yasous, who had that day commanded the rear in the retreat; an experienced officer, brave even to a fault, but full of mildness and humanity, and one of the most sensible and affable men in the army. He sent to desire that Bruce would come to him alone. This he promised to do; but he first wished to seek for Strates and Sebastos, who were disabled on the road.

Bruce soon came up with them, and was exceedingly surprised to see them both lying extended on the ground; Strates bleeding at a large wound in his forehead, moaning in Greek to himself, and exclaiming that he had broken his leg, which he pressed with both his hands below the knee, apparently regardless of the gash in his head, which seemed to be a very serious one; while Sebastos scarcely said anything, but sighed piteously. Bruce asked him whether his arm was broke; he answered feebly that he was dying, and that his legs, arms, and ribs were broken. The by-standers, meanwhile, were bursting into fits of laughter.

Ali, Mohammed's servant, the only person who appeared concerned, said that it was all owing to Prince George, who had frightened their mules. This prince was fond of horsemanship; he rode with saddle, bridle, and stirrups, like an Arab; and, though young, had become an excellent horseman, superior to any in Abyssinia. The manner in which two Arabs salute one another when they meet is this: the person inferior in rank or age presents his gun at the other when at about five hundred yards' distance, charged with powder only; he then, keeping his gun still presented, gallops up to him, levels the muzzle, and fires just under his friend's stirrups or the horse's belly. This the Arabs do, sometimes twenty at a time; and one would think it impossible that they should escape being bruised or burned. The prince had learned this exercise from Bruce, and was highly delighted as he became perfect in it. Bruce had procured him a short gun, with a lock and flint instead of a match, and he shot not only true, but gracefully, on horseback. He had been hunting deer all the morning; and hearing that his friend Bruce had arrived, and seeing the two Greeks riding on their mules, he came galloping furiously with his gun presented, and, not seeing Bruce, fired a shot under the belly of Strates's mule, and then, turning like lightning to the left, he was out of sight in a moment.

Never was compliment less relished or understood. Strates had a couple of panniers upon his mule, containing two great earthen jars of hydromel; Sebastos, the king's cook, had also sundry jars and pots, besides three or four dozen drinking glasses; a carpet almost covered the animals and the panniers; and upon the pack-saddles, between these panniers, Strates and Sebastos rode. The mules, as well as their burden, belonged to the king, and the men were permitted to ride only because they were a little unwell. Strates went first, and, to save trouble, the halter of Sebastos's mule was tied to his companion's saddle, and thus the mules were fastened to, and followed one another. As soon as the explosion took place, Strates's mule, not accustomed to such noisy compliments, started, turned about, and threw his rider to the ground; when, trampling upon him, the animal began to run off, and, winding the halter around Sebastos, who was behind, dragged him to the ground among some stones. Both the mules began kicking at each other, or, rather, at each other's panniers and pack-saddles, until they broke everything that was in them. Nor did the mischief end here; for, in running away, they came like a bar-shot across the mule of Azage Tecla Haimanout, one of the king's criminal judges, a very feeble old man, who found himself suddenly thrown upon the ground and his ankle broke, so that he could not walk alone for several months afterward. As soon as a tent was pitched for the wounded, and Bruce had dressed Tecla Haimanout's foot, he went to the tent of Kefla Yasous, who instantly rose up and embraced him. He then told Bruce that Ras Michael had resolved to cross the Nile immediately, and march back to Gondar; and that they were just commencing this retrograde movement when they were interrupted by the firing.

On the 26th of May, 1770, Bruce marched with the army towards the Nile. About four o'clock they reached the banks of the river. "From the time we had decamped from Congo," says Bruce, "it poured incessantly the most violent rain we had ever seen, violent claps of thunder followed close one upon another, almost without interval, accompanied with sheets of lightning, which ran on the ground like water; the day was more than commonly dark, as in an eclipse, and every hollow or footpath collected a quantity of rain, which ran into the Nile in torrents."

The Abyssinian armies pass the Nile at all seasons, though the appearance of the river is often terrific; but the Greeks crowded about Bruce in despair, lamenting that they had ever entered the country. The first person who crossed was a young officer, a relation of the king; he walked in with great caution, marking a track for the king to pass; but his horse, plunging into deep water, swam to the opposite side. The king followed next; then came the old ras on his mule, with several of his friends, swimming both with and without their horses, on each side of him, in a manner that appeared quite wonderful. Bruce and the king's troops now followed. The confusion which ensued it is impossible to describe; mules, horses, and men stuck for some time in the muddy landing-place, the latter screaming for help, when they were at length all hurried away by the stream. Rafts were made for some of the women; but the old ras sullenly insisted that Ozoro Esther, though she had actually fainted several times, should cross in the same manner that he had himself, and those who admired and pitied her swam by her side. It was said that the old ras had even been heard to declare, that if she could not pass, he had resolved to murder her, lest she should fall into the hands of his enemy, Fasil.

Two days after the passage of the river, the ras, who, although he was one of the most aged and infirm men in the army, seemed to require neither sleep nor rest, engaged and defeated Fasil in the battle of Limjour; in consequence of which, Fasil, the following day, sent to inform Michael of the manner in which the king had been betrayed by Gusho and Powussen; and, offering his submission, he added, "that he never again intended to appear in arms against the king; that he would hold his government under him, and pay his contributions regularly." Fasil, after this submission, was appointed governor of Damot and Maitsah.

"Late in the evening," says Bruce, "Ozoro Esther came to the king's tent. She had been ill and alarmed, as she well might, at the passage of the Nile, which had given her a more delicate look than ordinary; she was dressed all in white, and I thought I seldom had seen so handsome a woman. The king had sent ten oxen to old Ras Michael, but he had given twenty to Ozoro Esther; and it was to thank him for this extraordinary mark of favour that she had come to visit him in his tent. I had for some time past, indeed, thought they were not insensible to the merit of each other. Upon her thanking the young king for the distinction he had shown her, 'Madam,' said he, 'your husband, Ras Michael, is intent upon employing, in the best way possible for my service, those of the army that are strong and vigorous; you, I am told, bestow your care on the sick and disabled, and by your attention they are restored to their former health and activity. The strong, active soldier eats the cows that I have sent to the ras; the enfeebled and sick recover upon yours, for which reason I sent you a double portion, that you may have it in your power to do double good.'"

Bruce had now violent threatenings of the ague, and retired to bed full of reflections on the extraordinary events that in a few hours had crowded upon one another.

On the 30th of May he reached Gondar, and on the 3d of June the army was encamped on the river below the town. "From the time we left Dingleber," says Bruce, "some one or other of the ras's confidential friends had arrived every day. Several of the great officers of state reached us at the Kemona; many others met us at Abba Samuel. I did not perceive that the news they brought increased the spirits either of the king or the ras: the soldiers, however, were all contented, because they were at home; but the officers, who saw farther, wore very different countenances, especially those that were of Amhara. I, in particular, had very little reason to be pleased; for, after having undergone a constant series of fatigues, dangers, and expenses, I was returned to Gondar, disappointed of my views in arriving at the source of the Nile, without any other acquisition than a violent ague. The place where that river rises remained still as great a secret as it had been ever since the catastrophe of PhaËton:

The king had heard that Gusho and Powussen, and all the troops of Belessen and Lasta, were ready to fall upon him in Gondar as soon as the rains should have so swelled the TacazzÉ that the army could not retire into TigrÉ; and it was now thought that the king's proclamation in favour of Fasil, especially in giving him Gojam, would hasten the movements of the rebels.

"As I had never despaired," says Bruce, "some way or other, of arriving at the fountains of the Nile, from which we were not fifty miles distant when we turned back at Karcagna, so I never neglected to improve every means that held out to me the least probability of accomplishing this end. I had been very attentive and serviceable to Fasil's servants while in the camp. I spoke greatly of their master; and, when they went away, gave each of them a small present for himself, and a trifle also for Fasil. They had, on the other hand, been very importunate with me, as a physician, to prescribe something for a cancer on the lip, as I understood it to be, with which Welleta Yasous, Fasil's principal general, was afflicted.

"I had been advised by some of my medical friends to carry along with me a preparation of hemlock or cicuta, recommended by Dr. Stork, a physician at Vienna. A considerable quantity had been sent me from France by commission, with directions how to use it. To keep on the safe side, I prescribed small doses to Welleta Yasous; being much more anxious to preserve myself from reproach, than warmly solicitous about the cure of my unknown patient. I gave him positive advice to avoid eating raw meat, to keep to a milk diet, and drink plentifully of whey when he used this medicine. They were overjoyed at having succeeded so well in their commission, and declared before the king 'that Fasil, their master, would be more pleased with receiving a medicine that would restore Welleta Yasous to health, than with the magnificent appointments the king's goodness had bestowed upon him.' 'If it is so,' said I, 'in this day of grace I will ask two favours.' 'And that's a rarity,' says the king; 'come, out with them. I don't believe anybody is desirous you should be refused; I certainly am not; only I bar one of them—you are not to relapse into your usual despondency, and talk of going home.' 'Well, sir,' said I, 'I obey; and that is not one of them. They are these: You shall give me, and oblige Fasil to ratify it, the village Geesh, and the source where the Nile rises, that I may be from thence furnished with money for myself and servants; it shall stand me instead of Tangouri, near Emfras, and in value it is not worth so much. The second is, that when I shall see that it is in his power to carry me to Geesh, and show me those sources, Fasil shall do it upon my request, without fee or reward, and without excuse or evasion.'

"They all laughed at the easiness of the request; all declared that this was nothing, and wished to do ten times as much. The king said, 'Tell Fasil I do give the village of Geesh, and those fountains he is so fond of, to Yagoube and his posterity for ever, never to appear under another name in the deftar, and never to be taken from him or exchanged, either in peace or war. Do you swear this to him in the name of your master.' Upon which they took the two forefingers of my right hand, and one after the other laid the two forefingers of their right hand across them, then kissed them—a form of swearing used there, at least among those that call themselves Christians. And as Azage Kyrillos, the king's secretary and historian, was then present, the king ordered him to enter the gift in the deftar or revenue-book, where the taxes and revenue of the king's lands are registered. 'I will write it,' says the old man, 'in letters of gold; and, poor as I am, will give him a village four times better than either Geesh or Tangouri, if he will take a wife and stay among us, at least till my eyes are closed.' It will be easily guessed this rendered the conversation a cheerful one. Fasil's servants retired, to set out the next day, gratified to their utmost wish; and, as soon as the king was in bed, I went to my apartment likewise."

Bruce was now legally wedded to the "coy fountains" of the Nile; but, like the young Eastern prince, he was yet doomed to linger, till relentless Time should permit him to view the object of his warmest affection, the sole subject of his dreams and thoughts.

Very different notions, however, were occupying Michael and his officers. They were afraid to trust Fasil, and, besides, he could do them no service; the rain had set in, and he was gone home; the western part of the kingdom was ready to rise against the ras; Woggora also, to the north, immediately in Fasil's way, was in arms, and impatient to revenge the severities they had suffered when Michael first marched to Gondar; and the next morning the whole army was in motion.

Bruce had a short interview with the king. He frankly told him that he was weak in health, and quite unprepared to attend him to TigrÉ; that his heart was bent on accomplishing the only object which had brought him into Abyssinia; and that, should he be disappointed in effecting that object, he could only return to his country in disgrace. The young king appeared affected by Bruce's statement, and, with great kindness, desired him to remain for the present with the iteghe at Koscam.

Ras Michael having in vain urged certain brutal measures of violence on the king, now retired in disgust into his own province of TigrÉ. On the 10th of June, Gusho and Powussen entered Gondar; and for several months, the capital, as well as the country of Abyssinia, was convulsed with a series of petty disturbances.