Leaving the main body of the force behind, the envoy advanced, escorted by the 3d Cavalry, who had gone out to meet him, and attended only by a dozen or so of his personal followers. As he passed through the lines the regiments saluted and the bands played. The envoy was an intelligent-looking man, dressed in a crimson-silk dressing-gown, brocaded with yellow; over this he wore the universal Abyssinian white-cloth wrapping, and had a white turban upon his head. By his side rode the officers who had gone out to meet him and Mr. Munzinger. The envoy could not be received in a public durbar, as the previous ambassadors have been, for Sir Robert Napier has now only a small tent of some eight to ten feet square. I am unable to say, therefore, what took place at the interview, except that the envoy expressed very considerable dread of Theodore, who, he said, had 10,000 men, and would unquestionably fight us at Magdala. At the conclusion of the interview the envoy was presented with a horse and a double-barrelled gun. While the interview was going on we amused ourselves by inspecting the envoy’s shield, which was carried by an attendant, and was a very magnificent affair indeed. The shield itself was of course of rhinoceros hide, and upon it was a piece of lion’s skin, with numerous raised bosses of gilt-filigree work, which appeared to me to be of Indian workmanship. It was one of the ten royal shields, all precisely similar, which exist in Abyssinia. The attendants were mostly fine, well-built fellows, as were the general body of cavalry, and of superior physique to any men we had hitherto seen. I should mention that all the horses have a strap going from the forehead down to the nose, upon which are two or more round plates of metal with a sharp spike in them, exactly resembling, but smaller, those worn upon the foreheads of the horses of the knights of old. The 4th, the Scinde Horse, and a body of 3d Native Cavalry, were drawn up in front of the tent, and saluted as the envoy left. There is no doubt that Theodore will be no despicable foe, and the further we go the more evident this becomes. Gobayze’s army is said to be 20,000 strong; and if, as I understand, those we saw to-day were a fair sample of them, they would be certainly formidable antagonists. And yet Gobayze has been watching Theodore for months, and did not dare to attack him, even when encumbered by his artillery and baggage. Gobayze indeed confesses that his army would have no chance with that of Theodore. The army of the latter, then, when garrisoning a position of such immense natural strength as that of Magdala, will be formidable even to an army of 4000 British troops. There can be no doubt that we shall capture the place; but the British public must not be surprised if we do not do it directly we arrive.