The king received all this with great composure, for he had as much fortitude, and as little fear as ever fell to the share of any man; his misfortune, however, was, that he had no resources in which he could trust; and the Tigrè officers about him, more imprudent, and fully as fearless as he, gave him the same advices they would have done had he been at the head of the army. Ras Michael was moreover gone, and Kefla Yasous was at a distance; these two were the men for planning and contriving business, and who saved others the trouble of thinking. The rest, such as Billetana Gueta Tecla, Guebra Mascal, and Basha Hezekias, were only fit to be trusted with execution, and to proceed according to the letter of the orders they might receive, and the consequences of which they could not, nor did they wish to understand. By being used, however, to constant success in executing plans maturely digested by wiser heads, they had acquired a degree of presumption which made them very dangerous counsellors to a young king, in the present case, where nothing but the greatest prudence, assisted by the manifest interposition of the hand of Heaven, (many examples of which he had already proved) could save him from perdition. I was not present at the audience, being at Koscam, but his secretary, to whom I am indebted for every thing that passed in private, in this history, and which otherwise was beyond the reach of my knowledge, assured me the king answered these threatenings without any change of countenance or language, and in very few words: "Tell Kasmati Fasil from me, that what I am obliged to do by the rules of justice, is not to be measured either by his inclination or power to do wrong. Men have crucified their Saviour; and many kings in this country (better men than I am) have been, in various manners, slain by their deluded subjects. The race of Solomon, however, God has preserved till this day on the throne, where I am now sitting, while nothing but the memory of those who oppressed them remains loaded with the curses of mankind. I am king of this country, and have often been acknowledged as such by Kasmati Fasil. I will not give up Gusho, but at my own time, if ever; nor can he insist upon it, consistently with the duty of a subject to his sovereign." Noble words these, had he been at the head of an army to enforce them.