This inhuman ceremony being over, also the care of the wounded, which indeed precedes every thing, the king received all those of the nobility who had distinguished themselves that day; the tent was crowded, and he was in great spirits at the slaughter that had been made, which unbecoming pleasure he never could disguise. He mentioned the death of his uncle Guebra Christos with a degree of chearfulness, presuming, that when such a man died on his side, many of that rank and merit must have fallen on the other. Villages, appointments, and promotions, gold, promises, and presents of every kind, had been liberally bestowed upon those who had presented themselves, and who had merited reward that day by their behaviour. The king had been furnished with means from the Ras, and according to his natural inclination (especially towards soldiers) he had bestowed them liberally, and I believe impartially. Guebra Mascal had not appeared; he was waiting upon his uncle Ras Michael, looking after his own interest, to which no Abyssinian is blind, and exposing those bloody spoils, which I have just mentioned, to the Ras, his uncle and general. I had been absent from another motive, the attendance on my friend Engedan, to whose tent I had removed my bed, as he complained of great pain in his wound, and I had likewise obtained leave of the Ras to shift my tent near that of his, and leave the care of the king's horse to Laeca Mariam, an old slave and confidential servant of the king. As these men were the king's menial servants in his palace, a number of them (about a fourth) staid at Gondar with the horses, and few more than 100 to 120 could now be mustered, from about 200 or 204 which they at first were: the arranging of this, attendance upon Ayto Engedan, and several delays in getting access to the Ras, who had all his troops of Tigrè round him, made it past eight o'clock in the evening before I could see the king after he entered the camp; he had many times sent in search of Sertza Denghel, but no such person could be found; he had been seen bravely fighting by Engedan's side in the entrance of the valley, when that young nobleman was wounded, and he had retired with him from the field, but nobody could give any account of him, and the king, by his repeated inquiries after him, shewed more anxiety, from the supposition he was lost, than he had done for Guebra Christos his uncle, or all the men that had fallen that day; I had seen him in Ayto Engedan's tent, sitting behind his bed, in the darkest place of it; both his lips, nose, and chin were violently cut, his whole fore teeth beat out, and both his cheeks greatly swelled. I had given him what relief I could, nor was there any thing dangerous in his wounds; but the affront of receiving the blow from the king, when he was doing a most meritorious act of duty, (the saving him from death, or the hands of the rebels), had made such an impression