the shrill cry of despair. The earth,
saturated with moisture, had slidden from their steep slopes, houses
and cottages were engulfed in the debris, or shattered to fragments
by the descending masses, and daylight presented a strange scene of
ruin. Perched on the apex of the conical peak, the palace buildings
were now stripped of their palisades, or overwhelmed: the roads along
the hill were completely obliterated. The desolation had spread for
miles along the great range: houses, with their inmates, had been
hurried away."

Before the mission took its departure, it did honour to the character of
its country by one act which alone would have been worth its time and
trouble. The horrid policy of African despotism condemns all the brothers
of the throne to the dungeon, from the moment of the royal accession. The
king had exhibited qualities of a very unexpected order in an African
despot, and, under the guidance of the mission, had made some advances to
justice, and even to clemency. At this period, he was suddenly seized with
an alarming spasmodic disorder, and he apprehended that his constitution,
enfeebled by the habits of his life, was likely to give way. On his
recovery being despaired of by both priests and physicians, he suddenly
sent for the British mission.

"'My children,' said his majesty in a sepulchral voice, as he
extended his burning hand towards them, 'behold I am sore stricken.
Last night they believed me dead, and the voice of mourning had
arisen within the palace walls; but God hath spared me until now.'"

It seems to be the custom for the king's physician to taste the draught
prescribed for him, and an attenpt being made to do this by the British,
the sick monarch generously forbade it.

"'What need is there now of this?' he exclaimed reproachfully. 'Do I
not know that you would administer to Sahela Selasse nothing that
could do him mischief?'"

The reader will probably remember an almost similar act of confidence of
Alexander the Great in his physician. An opportunity was now taken of
urging him to an act of humanity, however strongly opposed to the habits
of the country, and to the interests of the man. It was represented to him
that his uncles and brothers had been immured in a dungeon during the
thirty years of his reign, and that no act could be more honourable to
himself, or acceptable to Heaven, than the extinction of this barbarous
custom.

"'And I will r