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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He Inclosed With His Letter The One He Had Just Received
From Sir Robert Napier, Handed It Over To Prideaux, And Bade Them
Be Off At Once; Not Allowing Prideaux Even To Wait For A Glass Of
Water, Telling Him That There Was No Time To Lose.
Another couple of hours' ride brought Prideaux and Flad again to
the British camp.
Sir Robert Napier, however reluctant he must have
felt, after allowing them time to rest, despatched them back to
Theodore. It was, indeed, the proper way to deal with him: firmness
alone could save our lives; as we had but too ample proofs that the
kind of adoration for so long bestowed upon him resulted in nothing
but a nonsensical correspondence, and no real advantage had ever
been gained. No answer could possibly be given to the mad production
Theodore had sent; a verbal message to the same purport as the first
communication from the Commander-in-Chief was all that was required.
We were still in the power of Theodore; had not, as yet, tasted
liberty; whatever, before long, would be our fate, we were passive,
and ready to submit with as much good grace as possible to the
sentence we every minute expected. Mr. Flad had left his wife and
children on Islamgee, and could not well decline to go back; but
for Prideaux the case was quite different: he returned, like a
brave, gallant man, ready to sacrifice his own life in endeavouring
to save ours, and going willingly to almost certain death in obedience
to his duty.
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