English soldiers now guarded our former gaolers,
the queen was our guest, the dead body of Theodore lay in one of
our huts: in the short span of forty-eight hours our position had
so completely changed that it was difficult to realize it: at times
I was apprehensive of being the victim of a delusion. I was too
excited to sleep.
General Wilby, his aide-de-camp Captain Cappel, and his brigade-major
Major Hicks, shared my hut; hungry and tired they enjoyed quite as much as
I did, the simple Abyssinian dish of teps, the peppery sauce, and some tej,
which we ourselves went to fetch from the cellars in the royal buildings.
The next day we returned to Arogie, and during my stay there I received
the kind hospitality of General Merewether. On the 16th, some of the
released captives and myself started for Dalanta, where we waited a few
days until all had joined; and on the 21st, after Sir Robert Napier had
presented us to our deliverers, we proceeded on our way to the coast,
and reached Zulla on the 28th of May.
Looking back now, a free man in a free country, the past appears
to me like a horrible dream, a kind of missing link in my life; and
when I remember that our deliverance was followed so shortly
afterwards by the self-destruction of the passionate despot who
held us in his power, I can find no truer solution to this difficult
problem, than the words inscribed by the warm-hearted countrymen
of Kerans, on the banner that floated at Ahascragh to welcome his
return, "God is good, who set you free."
ERRATUM.
Page 33, line 13, - For "Samuel, the Georgis balderaba"
Read "Samuel Georgis, the balderaba"
End of A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia by Henry Blanc
