NEW EMPIRE OF ABYSSINIA. 145 



of the Negus, mingled with promises and threatenings, had already dissolved his 

 unfortunate army. On the night which followed the arrival of the emperor at 

 the Tigreen camp, the besieged heard with terror a herald posted on a neigh- 

 touring hill, invisible in the mist, making the following proclamation : " These 

 are the words of djan-hdi. I pardon all who quit to-night the camp of Negousie, 

 and assign them three ghedem (asylums), namely : the church of Axum, that of 

 Adona and my own camp. As for those whom I shall find under arms to-morrow, 

 let them expect no" mercy ! " In the morning Negousie had around him only his 

 faithful Agaus and a small number of Tigreens ; most of his soldiers had dis- 

 persed to their villages, the chiefs who were most compromised, having retired 

 to the two churches of Axum and Adona. The unfortunate man, shedding tears 

 of rage, assembled his last defenders, cut his way through the army of the enemy 

 and threw himself into the mountains with twenty horsemen. Vigorously pur^ 

 sued, and daily losing some of his men by death or flight, he ended by falling in 

 with some peasants, who recognized him by a broken tooth and brought him to 

 Theodore, along with his brother Tesama. The pretender, it is said, exhibited 

 little dignity before the conqueror. Theodore, for his part, seemed disposed to 

 clemency : he told the two brothers that he would leave them their fiefs if they 

 ■would pay tribute and caused supper to be prepared for them. The two captives 

 passed the night full of hope ; but the next day, the wind had changed : the 

 Negus ordered the right hand and left foot of each to be cut off, and, by a refine- 

 ment of barbarity, forbade that water should be given them to quench the burn- 

 ing thirst which always follows this frightful operation. Tesama died under it 

 the next day; the strong constitution of Negousie kept him up for a longer 

 period, and, it is thought, that, had the Negus allowed him the attentions rarely 

 refused to those punished in this manner, he would have been cured. On the 

 third day, he begged, himself, for the lance thrust which put an end to his intol- 

 erable tortures. 



Thus perished the only man who has seriously endangered the political edifice 

 inaugurated by Theodore the Second. His death — closely followed by that of 

 his principal generals, who were executed at Axum, in spite of the inviolability 

 of asylum, and of the promise given — was imputed to the negligence of France 

 and has served as a ground for many accusations against her : it has been already 

 seen whether they are well founded or no. As for the conqueror, the infatuation 

 that has come over him shows the degree of uneasiness that French intervention 

 inspired him with. When he entered Axum, after the execution of the vanquished, 

 and received the trembling deputation of Axumite clergy, he pronounced an 

 oration, of which the following words are remarkable as the most foolish perhaps 

 that man ever dared to utter: "I have made an agreement with God. He has 

 promised not to descend to earth to injure me and I have promised not to ascend 

 heaven to fight with Him." 



3PHE POLICY OF THE NEGUS SINCE 1861. — HIS. BELATIONS WITH EUROPE. 



I. 

 In the spring of 1861, the Negus, Theodore the Second, the subduer of a rising 

 which had nothing less for its aim than the dismemberment of his empire,* had 



* See article in last number. 



Vol. X. K 



