The Fathers, Having Been Already Told Of His Revolt, And
Of The Pretences He Made Use Of To Give It Credit, Made No Question
Of His Intent To Massacre Them, And Contrived Their Escape So That
They Got Safely Out Of His Power.
The viceroy, disappointed in his scheme, vented all his rage upon
Father James, whom the patriarch had given him
As his confessor; the
good man was carried, bound hand and foot, into the middle of the
camp; the viceroy gave the first stab in the throat, and all the
rest struck him with their lances, and dipped their weapons in his
blood, promising each other that they would never accept of any act
of oblivion or terms of peace by which the Catholic religion was not
abolished throughout the empire, and all those who professed it
either banished or put to death. They then ordered all the beads,
images, crosses, and relics which the Catholics made use of to be
thrown into the fire.
The anger of God was now ready to fall upon his head for these
daring and complicated crimes; the Emperor had already confiscated
all his goods, and given the government of the kingdom of Tigre to
Keba Christos, a good Catholic, who was sent with a numerous army to
take possession of it. As both armies were in search of each other,
it was not long before they came to a battle. The revolted viceroy
Tecla Georgis placed all his confidence in the Galles, his
auxiliaries. Keba Christos, who had marched with incredible
expedition to hinder the enemy from making any intrenchments, would
willingly have refreshed his men a few days before the battle, but
finding the foe vigilant, thought it not proper to stay till he was
attacked, and therefore resolved to make the first onset; then
presenting himself before his army without arms and with his head
uncovered, assured them that such was his confidence in God's
protection of those that engaged in so just a cause, that though he
were in that condition and alone, he would attack his enemies.
The battle began immediately, and of all the troops of Tecla Georgis
only the Galles made any resistance, the rest abandoned him without
striking a blow. The unhappy commander, seeing all his squadrons
broken, and three hundred of the Galles, with twelve ecclesiastics,
killed on the spot, hid himself in a cave, where he was found three
days afterwards, with his favourite and a monk. When they took him,
they cut off the heads of his two companions in the field, and
carried him to the Emperor; the procedure against him was not long,
and he was condemned to be burnt alive. Then imagining that, if he
embraced the Catholic faith, the intercession of the missionaries,
with the entreaties of his wife and children, might procure him a
pardon, he desired a Jesuit to hear his confession, and abjured his
errors. The Emperor was inflexible both to the entreaties of his
daughter and the tears of his grand-children, and all that could be
obtained of him was that the sentence should be mollified, and
changed into a condemnation to be hanged.
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