Za Selasse, seeing this opinion gained ground among his troops, and fearing they might mutiny and leave him alone, made a virtue of necessity: he dispatched an ambassador to acknowledge Socinios as his sovereign, and declare that he was ready to swear allegiance to him. Socinios received this embassy with great apparent complacency. He sent in return a monk, in whom he confided, a person of great worth and dignity, to be his representative, and receive the homage of Za Selassé and his army. On the news of this monk’s approach, Za Selassé sent on his part ten men, the most respectable in his camp, to meet this representative of the king, and conduct him into the camp, where Za Selassé, and all his troops, did homage, and swore allegiance to Socinios. Feasts and presents were now given in the camp, as is usual at the accession of a new king to the throne, and all the army abandoned themselves to joy. These good tidings were immediately communicated both to Socinios and Ras Athanasius. But, in the midst of this rejoicing, a messenger came from Jacob, informing Za Selassé that he was then in Dembea; that he had conferred upon him the title of Ras and Betwudet, that is, had made him the king’s lieutenant-general throughout the whole empire. Za Selassé, in possession of the height of his wishes, and making an ample distribution among his troops, determined immediately to march and join Jacob in Dembea; but first he wrote privately to the ten men that had accompanied the monk to Socinios, that they should withdraw themselves as suddenly and privately as possible before the coming of Jacob was known. Eight of these were lucky enough to do so; two of them were overtaken in the flight and brought back to Socinios, who ordered them to immediate execution. Ras Athanasius, seeing the prosperous turn that Jacob’s affairs had taken, renounced his oath to Socinios, and repaired to Jacob at Coga, while Socinios retired into Amhara at the head of a very respectable army, waiting an opportunity to repay Jacob for his ambition, and Athanasius and Za Selassé for their treason and perjury towards him. Although Jacob was now again seated on the throne, surrounded by the army and great officers of the empire, his mind was always disturbed with the apprehension of Socinios. In order to free himself from this anxiety, he employed Socinios’s mother in an application to her son, with an offer of peace and friendship; promising, besides, that he would give him in property the kingdoms of Amhara, Walaka, and Shoa, and all the lands which his father had ever possessed in any other part of Abyssinia. Socinios shortly answered, “That what God had given him, no man could take from him; that the whole kingdom belonged to him, nor would he ever relinquish any part of it but with his life. He advised Jacob to consider this, and peaceably resign a crown which did not belong to him; and the attempting to keep which, would involve him and his country in a speedy destruction.”