the palace gate, and will soon, I apprehend, in the palace itself. This cannot be pleasant, and I do assure you it must be very pernicious to your health, if there was nothing else in it. At the battle of Fagitta, though you had no intention to retreat, yet you went half a day backward, to higher ground and purer air, to avoid the stench of the field; but here in the city you heap up carrion about your houses, where is your continual residence." "The ras has given orders," said the king, gravely, "to remove all the dead bodies before the Epiphany, when we go down to keep that festival, and wash away all this pollution in the clear-running water of the Kahha; but tell me, Yagoube, is it really possible that you can take such things as these so much to heart? You are a brave man: we all know you are, and have seen it: we have all blamed you, stranger as you are in this country, for the little care you take of yourself; and yet about these things you are as much affected as the most cowardly woman, girl, or child could be." "Sir," said Bruce, "I do not know if I am brave or not; but if to see men tortured or murdered, or to live among dead bodies without concern, be courage, I have it not, nor desire to have it." In the eager expression of these manly sentiments, which sparkle in the moral darkness amid which they appear, Bruce was interrupted by the arrival of a young nobleman, who, according to custom, threw himself on his face before the king. Ras Michael was now announced, and Bruce made haste to get away. In the antechamber he passed the ras, attended by a great many people, and endeavoured to slide by him in the crowd; but he noticed him, and called him before him. Bruce kissed his hands, and the ras kept hold of one of them, saying, "My son is ill; Ozoro Esther has just sent to me, and complains you visit her now no more. Go see the boy, and don't neglect Ozoro Esther; she is one of your best friends." Bruce inquired if she was at Gondar, and was answered, "No; she is at Koscam." He therefore went home to plan his route to Sennaar, and to prepare letters for Hagi Belal, a merchant there, to whom he was recommended from Arabia Felix. On the 31st of December, 1770, the last day of a year which, in the history of Bruce's life, had been so eventful, he went to Koscam. The next night, the 1st of January, 1771, Bruce was desired to wait on the king; and, after a very long discussion, he at last succeeded in obtaining permission to send letters to Sennaar, arranging his departure from Abyssinia, under a solemn engagement, that, as soon as he should recover his health in England, he would return with as many of his brethren and family as possible, with horses, muskets, and bayonets. "This permission," says Bruce, "greatly composed my mind at the time, as I now no longer considered myself as involved in that ancient and general rule of the country--_never to allow a stranger to quit Abyssinia_."