s heels, and be speared without the smallest danger.'"

The march, and the foray into the country of one of the Galla tribes, are
admirably told, and perhaps are among the best descriptions in the
volumes--exact without being tedious, and deeply coloured without
exaggeration. But we must hasten to other things. This was the monarch's
eighty-fourth foray; and on this we may conceive something of the horrors
of barbarian life, and of the tremendous evils which nations have escaped
whose laws and principles tame down the original evil of man.

We are glad to find that the embassy refused to take any share in this
horrible work, though they fell into some disrepute with the troops, and
even with the monarch, for their remissness. The king had even reserved an
unlucky Galla in a tree, to be shot by his guests. But this they declined,
first, on the pretext of its being the Sabbath, and next, more distinctly
on the ground, that--"no public body was authorized by the law of nations,
to draw a sword offensively in any country not at war with its own." They
then offered the compromise, "that an elephant was esteemed equivalent to
forty Gallas, and a wild buffalo to five, and that they were ready to
shoot as many of both as his Majesty pleased." But the embassy did more
effectual things; the sick and wounded received relief from them to the
extent of their means, and they even prevailed on the king to liberate all
his prisoners. The troops in the foray amounted to about 20,000.

On the return of this destroying expedition, which seems to have turned a
very fine country into a desert, the king made a kind of triumphal entry
into his capital. His costume was splendidly savage. A lion's skin over
his shoulders, richly ornamented, and half concealing beneath its folds an
embroidered green mantle of Indian manufacture; on his right shoulder were
three chains of gold, as emblems of the Holy Trinity,(!) and the
fresh-plucked bough of asparagus, which denoted his recent exploit, rose
from the centre of an embossed coronet of silver on his brow. His dappled
war-horse, in housings of blue and yellow, was led beside him; and in
front his "champion" rode a coal-black charger, bearing the royal shield
of massive silver, with the cross upon it, and dressed in a panther's hide.
The two chief officers of his army rode either side of the crimson
umbrella; at the palace gates, a deputation of priests in white robes
received the conqueror with a ben