A Narrative Of Captivity In Abyssinia With Some Account Of The Late Emperor Theodore, His Country And People By Henry Blanc
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We Knew Enough Of The Emperor's
Character To Fear That, When Once He Again Took To Plundering And
Killing, He
Would lose much of the amenity and gentleness he had
of late displayed, and look upon the arrival of an
Armed force from
England in a very different light; we were not, therefore, much
astonished to hear that he had again quarrelled with the Europeans
around him. It is also not improbable that a copy of the proclamation
the Commander-in-Chief had sent to the different chiefs may have
fallen into his hands about this time, as one was found after his
death amongst his papers. Whatever may have been the cause of his
sudden change, he, without any apparent reason, all at once regarded
his workmen with suspicion, and though he ordered them to be in
constant attendance upon his person, he would not for many days
allow them to work.
Mr. Waldmeier one evening, on returning to his tent to take his
evening meal, entered into conversation with a spy of the Emperor's
on the subject of the advance of the English army. Waldmeier, amongst
other things, told the man that it would be a very unwise act of
his Majesty if he did not at once make friends with the English,
as he had not a single friend in the country. On the officer reporting
that conversation, Theodore in a fearful passion sent for all the
Europeans; for a while his rage was such that he could not speak,
but kept walking up and down, looking fiercely at them, and holding
his spear in a threatening attitudes.
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