214 THEODORE TI. AND THE 



Btands and loves the Europeans. The companion of his long life came to share 

 his chains ; the Nc'gus tried to intimidute and separate them by a divorce, but 

 his efforts were in vain. " Tour majesty," said the noble woman^ " can put us to 

 d<!ath ; you cannot separate us, for heaven remains to us." 



The arrest of Balgada wns characteiistic. Under the pretext of coming to 

 render lioruage to the Negus, he had presented himself before him at the head of 

 an army of Tigreens, as if to brave him. Theodore was not a man to be pro- 

 voliCi! in this way ; gr<iciou£ly he received Balgada, invited him to dine with 

 him, took him by the arm to show him the interior of his camp, and at the. end of 

 this promenade put him in irons, Balgada became enraged, insulted Theodore, 

 ■who stood by unmoved at the execution of the order, and demanded of him what 

 crime he had committed, "None," answered the Negus, " I arrest^ou because 

 Tigi e loves you and because you are strong and foolish enough to excite a new 

 revolution." " Give me a horse and a eword," said the exasperated Balgada, 

 " and prove to me with a sword in your hand that you are worthy of the tlirone I" 

 " God preserve me from that I" replied Theodore without any emotion. "Abyss- 

 inia has had brainless paladins enough like you, and they have been her ruin, 

 she needs now a master and order, go, and may God deliver you .' " This saying 

 was not, as some might think, a bitter jest, it should rather be translated thus t 

 " Pray to God that he may bring about days so peaceful that I may, without 

 endansrering the public peace, restore you and similar ones to liberty." 



We have led the reader into the very heart of col^emporaneous events. How 

 will we conclude this series of confused struggles which we have endeavoured to 

 relate ? It is very certain that for nine years the whole of Abyssinia has been 

 ut'der the sway of oue man. Of all the more or less factious rivals of Theodore, 

 not one ha? been a serious pretender. The strongest, Agan Negnisie, w^^s inde- 

 cision itself and the plaything of a thousand intrigues. The last of the idle kings^ 

 Johannes, who has been the object of the thought of some European politiiians, 

 is a man of gentle maimers, a literary charaetei", a poet, but a prince without 

 prestige and without a name. The teirible sovereign before whom all Abyssinia 

 ireiul'les speaks to Johannes with submission, calls him my master, would not 

 dai-e to sit before him, but coldly leaves him to die in misery, in the depths of 

 the lonely palace of his aiicestois which the ironical generosity of the Negus has 

 left him. There remains Tedla Gualu, of whom the supporters of the ir^surrec- 

 tion seek to make a great man ; he is merely a little skilful prince, who does full 

 justice to himself by avoiding every pretension to the crown, and who only 

 desires to live as a sovereign in his fief of Gocjjam, without having to pay tribute 

 to any one. 



Theodore II. deems it of the greatest importance ta perpetuate his dynasty 

 and with it the empire which he has restored. He pretends to have an unshaka- 

 ble confidence in this: is it well founded? however, this is how he reasons: 

 " God has promised the future to the house of David. Of this house, I am the 

 only heir among all the cotemporary fovereigus; the future then belongs to me, 

 or at least to my line. I may succumb, but my line must triumph, for the prO" 

 pbecies cannot be false." He has two adult sons by .his first wife. The older is a 

 kind of vulgar ealiban, despised and detested by his father, who carefully re* 



