144 THEODORE II. AND THE 



the Ethiopian Alps ; the Negus, hesitating to risk a battle find expose his troops 

 'to death from the murderous miasma of these grounds, followed him at a distance 

 for one day, and, at last, was obliged to retire. 



Gloomy and threatening, the Negus returned to Gondar, He had just heard 

 that Mr. Plonden, the English consul, had been murdered by the soldiers of an 

 'insurgent chief called Garet. Some arms, discovered in the houses of suspected 

 parties, furnished him with a pretext for terrifying the city by bloody executions, 

 then he marched upon the Waggara in pursuit of Garet, who, feeling the infe- 

 riority of his forces, descended to the little plateau of Tchober. There, seized 

 with frenzy, Garet resolved to risk a kind of duel : having recognized, from a 

 distance, the Negus who was approaching, followed by a group of officers, he 

 galloped up to Theodore. Having come within close range of him, he rapidly 

 presented his gun, aimed at the Negus and fired. Theodore avoided the shot and 

 got off with a slight wound in the shoulder. At this moment, the Likamankuas 

 Bell, seeing his master in danger, made some steps forward to cover him, took 

 aim at Garet and brought him down, dead ; but, almost immediately Bell fell, 

 pierced with a lance thrust in his side. Garet's men, dismayed, laid down their 

 arms and the Negus brought them prisoners to his camp at Dobank in the high- 

 lands. There, his repressed fury burst forth and displayed itself in a frightful 

 massacre. The prisoners, to the number of ITOO were cut to pieces and their 

 corpses left unburied on the plain of this name, which I found, nearly three years 

 later, still covered with whitened skulls. 



However, the period of a decisive struggle with the pretender Negousie was 

 approaching, and Theodore prepared for it with a gloomy and silent activity that 

 contrasted with the indecision and want of system exhibited in" all Negousie's 

 operations. The latter, since the departure of M, de Russel, felt that he was 

 lost ; he was heard to say : " I fall as much by the hand of my friends as by that 

 of my enemies." The head quarters of the Tigreens, a kind of flying camp 

 between Adona and Haouzene, had become a theatre of intrigues and clamorous 

 rivalry ; a certain number of French adventurers had come thither, attracted by 

 the reports noised in Europe, in connection with the name of Negousie. Com- 

 merce wag dead and the peasants no longer dared to frequent the markets, 

 periodically plundered, by Negousie's bands. Nevertheless, the whole of 1860 

 passed over without any serious hostilities. The Negus still seemed doubtful of 

 success and wished to treat with his two most formidable enemies, Negousie the 

 pretender of Tigre and Tedla-Gualu, the chief of the Godjam insurrection. He 

 proposed to leave them the two provinces they occupied, in fief, on condition that 

 they should recognize him and pay tribute. "What he held most to heart, in 

 fact, was the reeogoition of his royal title: Negousie, almost independent viceroy 

 of Tigre, but renouncing the title of Negus of Ethiopia, had never been more in 

 condition to give umbrage to him than any other great vassal, entrenched on hia 

 impregnable mountain. Negousie replied that he had granted, by oath, several 

 fiefs to chiefs whom he named, and that honour forbade him not keeping his 

 word ; Tedla replied in the same manner, adding derision to the refusal. 



In January 1861, Theodore the Second put himself en route and marched 

 towards the mountains of Temben, where Negousie was encamped. The intrigues 



