In the following year, Gragnè, in a message represented to him, that he might see he was fighting against God, exhorting him to be wise, and make his peace in time, which he should have upon the condition of giving him his daughter in marriage, and he would then withdraw his army, otherwise he would never leave Abyssinia till he had reduced it to a condition of producing nothing but grass. But the king, nothing daunted, returned him for answer, That he was an infidel, and a blasphemer, used as an instrument to chastise him and his people for their many sins; that it was his duty to bear the correction patiently; but that it would soon happen, when this just purpose was answered, that he would be destroyed, and all those with him, as such wicked instruments had always been; that he the king, and Abyssinia his kingdom, would be preserved as a monument of the mercy of God, who never entirely forsook his people, though he might chastise them. Indeed, the condition of the country was now such that a total destruction seemed to be at hand; for a famine and plague, its constant companion, raged in Abyssinia, carrying off those that the sword had spared. Gideon and Judith, king and queen of the Jews, in the high country of Samen, after having suffered much from Gragnè, had at last rebelled and joined him; and the king, who it seems continued to shew an inclination to the Catholic church, which he had imbibed during the embassy of Don Roderigo, by this had occasioned many to fall off from him, he and the court observing Easter according to the Roman kalendar, while the rest of the clergy and kingdom continued firm to that of Alexandria. At this time Osman of Dawaro, Jonadab, Kefla, Yousef, and other rebel Abyssinians, part of Ammer’s army, one of Gragnè’s generals, surprised the king’s eldest son, Victor, going to join his father the 7th day of March; slew him, and dispersed his army. Three days after, the king himself came to action, with Ammer at Zaat in Waag, but he was there again beaten, and his youngest son Menas was taken prisoner. The king had scarce now an attendant, and, being almost alone, he took refuge among the rocks and bushes in a high mountain called _Tsalem_, in the district of Tsalamet. But he had not remained above a day there, when he was followed by Joram, (rebel-master of that district) and narrowly escaped being taken as he was crossing the Tacazzé on foot and alone; whence he took refuge on mount Tabor, a very high mountain in Siré, and there he passed the winter.