with miseries, ever coming and going, ever flowing away, where there is nothing that stays, or remains the same; like the rising and setting star, one ever following the other, no rest, but change forever; or like the pain of wounds that are ever breaking out anew, so bleeds afresh the heart that is wounded by the loss of friends after it has enjoyed their society.

Then the gazelle and the raven said to the mouse: Surely we are anxious, as well as you; but your talk, though indeed it is very eloquent,* will give no help to the tortoise; for it is truly said that men are tried in adversity, children and kindred are tested by poverty, and brothers are proved by evil fortune. True, said the mouse, but I can do something more than talk; I see a way to get us out of this trouble. It is this: let the gazelle go and fall down in view of the huntsman, as though he was wounded; and then let the raven pounce down upon him as though intending to eat him; whilst I will dart on, keeping near the huntsman, and watching him very closely; it may be that he will throw his stick at him, and, for that purpose, lay down the tortoise, giving his whole attention to you, that he yet may get possession of the gazelle. When he comes near, then start up again, and run on a little way, just far enough to keep up his eagerness, and make him think that he will be able to catch you; so, leading him on farther and farther from us, keeping one side of him, and just as near as you

This looks again as though the gazelle and the raven meant to be a little quizzical, on our very friendly, but rather overrighteous, mouse. We have specimens of such continual moralizing, without much rhyme or reason, in the discourses that pass between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Indeed, all through, Cervantes seems to present it as a trait of the common Spanish discourse. They may have got it from the Arabians, who manifest this tendency very strongly in their ethics, poetry, and legends. The original unabridged Arabian Nights tales are full of it. In a sublimer form we see something of this rhapsodic Oriental sententiousness in the long speeches of Job's friends.

dare. During this time I will be gnawing the cords of the tortoise, with good hope of getting her loose before the huntsman comes back. The raven and the gazelle did what the mouse advised them. The huntsman went in pursuit, and the gazelle led him on until he had got very far away, while the mouse applied himself to the cutting of the cords, and the tortoise had time to get off to a safe hiding-place. When the huntsman came back, blowing and weary, and found the cords cut again, he fell to thinking over the matter, and all about the gazelle that he had been expecting to catch, and the curious conduct of the raven, until he began to think himself utterly muddled* in his understanding. He could not imagine how it was his cords all gnawed to pieces, and no one in sight; whilst the look of the place grew lonely and weird. Surely, said he, this must be the devil's territory, a land of Jins and sorcery. So he went away without hunting any more. But the raven, and the gazelle, and the mouse, and the tortoise, all came together in their shady retreat, safe and sound, and rejoicing in their good fortune.

Then said Bidpai, the philosopher, unto Dabschelim, the king: See how these creatures here, even in their smallness and their weakness, were able to deliver themselves from the bands of destruction-and that, too, time after time-because they had love in its purity and constancy, and were ever ready to help each other. And so MAN, on whom is bestowed reason and judgment, who is inspired to distinguish good and evil, and gifted with discernment and knowledge, - HE, above all other beings, is designed for society, and fitted for friendship and mutual help.

This, O King, is the story for which you asked-a picture of true friends, and of the happy life they led.

* Arabic, choulat,—all mixed up, as we say.

salutes his meanest subjects with courtesy; is sincerely though often mistakenly religious, and will acknowledge a fault committed to

could call out so much enthusiasm could be no common character. It is proba

"He is generous to excess, and free from all cupidity, regarding nothing with pleasure or desire but munitions of war for his soldiers.

·

He has hitherto exercised the utmost clemency towards the vanquished, treating them rather as his friends than his enemies. His faith is signal. Without Christ,' he says, 'I am nothing. If He has destined me to purify and reform this distracted kingdom, with His aid, who shall stay me?' Nay, sometimes he is on the point of not caring for human assistance at all; and this is one reason why he will not seek with much avidity for assistance from or alliance with Europe.

"The worst points in his character are his violent anger at times, his unyielding pride as regards his kingly and divine right, and his fanatical religious zeal.

"He has begun to reform even the dress of Abyssinia, all about his person wearing large flowing trowsers, and upper and under vests, instead of the half-naked costumes introduced

by the Gallas. Married himself at the altar, and strictly continent, he has ordered or persuaded all who love him to follow his example, and exacts the greatest decency of manners and conversation. This system he hopes to extend to all classes.

"He has suppressed the slave-trade in all its phases, save that the slaves already bought may be sold to such Christians as shall buy them for charity. Setting the example, he pays to the Musselman dealers what price they please to ask for the slaves they bring to him, and then baptizes them.

"He has abolished the barbarous practice of delivering over murderers to the relatives of the deceased, handing over offenders, in public, to his own executioners, to be shot or decapitated.

"The arduous task of breaking the power of the great feudal chiefs-a task achieved in Europe only during the reign of many consecutive kings-he has commenced by chaining almost all who were dangerous, avowing his intention of liberating them when his power shall be consolidated. He has placed the soldiers of the different provinces under the command of his own trusty followers, to whom he has given high titles, but no power to judge or punish; thus, in fact, creating generals in place of feudal chieftains more proud of their birth than of their monarch, and organizing a new nobility, a legion of honor dependent on himself, and chosen specially for their daring and fidelity."

This sketch was written many years ago, but it shows that the man who

have faded since that time, and that his darker traits have been gaining the ascendant.

It was in 1855 that the young Emperor of the now united Abyssinia was crowned, and every thing promised well for his sway. He was strongly opposed to all Mahometans, and as strongly drawn to Europeans. Indeed, it is not too much to say, that if his first letter to Queen Victoria, in 1862, had not been contemptuously passed over in silence, his desire for an alliance with the English, as well as with the French and Russian powers, would have led to results diametrically opposed to those which have taken place. Previous to Theodore's time-indeed as early as 1849-negotiations were opened between England and Abyssinia, but they led to few results; and it was only when the powerful mind of the young usurper took hold of the matter, that it began to assume moment. Yet his manner of going to work was wholly wrong. He knew the greatness of the European powers only partially; at any rate, he overrated his own, and in writing to Queen Victoria, in 1862, his language was so strongly steeped in oriental arrogance as to make him the jest of all Europe. Yet it is not to be overlooked, in America at least, that the mistake which Theodore committed was not greater than Victoria's, in not replying. He overrated himself, his kingly importance, and the relation of Abyssinia to the rest of the world. He showed the want of travel, and of that culture which lets men see the perspective of national importance. And it was only natural. How should he, a meanly educated African prince, know better? He saw that the arts of England were good, and that her manufactures were very desirable, but he could not know the weight of her gloved hand, nor the power of her armaments. It has been stated in a prominent American journal, that he went so far as to propose terms of marriage to Queen Victoria, but this

is not true; he simply desired to open channels of diplomatic and commercial intercourse. His letter, which was written in his own hand, was unanswered, and in his rage at this slight he began his acts of cruelty.

It was not till a year after Theodore had despatched his letter to the English Queen, and to Napoleon, that he went so far as to throw Colonel Cameron, the newly-appointed representative of the British government, into prison, and to keep him there chained to an Abyssinian soldier; but in the very summer of 1862, while waiting for his answer, his cruel treatment of Europeans began. His temper broke out most bitterly upon Rev. Mr. Stern, a German-English missionary, and two servants who had tried to act as interpreters between himself and the English. All three of these he caused to be whipped severely-indeed, so cruelly that the two servants died of their stripes the next day. From that time on the lives of all Europeans were manifestly at the mercy of the fierce Emperor. All accounts agree, that when his anger was kindled, his wrath was truly volcanic. At the time when Mr. Stern just escaped being flogged to death, Theodore was seated upon a rock a few feet off, his mouth foaming, his eyes glaring, a spear clutched nervously in his hand, and his whole aspect that of a madman. No language can surpass the energetic terms with which he is painted by those who were then the objects of his violence and his anger. Yet there was a certain dim fear of the consequences even then hanging over him; for while the two servants were being flogged to death for their want of skill in interpreting, Mr. Stern bit his thumb (a sign in Abyssinia that revenge will one day be exacted); and Theodore, although raving with anger, did not dare to put the worthy though outraged missionary to death. So, too, through all these long years of captivity, from 1863 to 1868, amid all the privations, the degradations, the anxieties, the frequent removals, the scourgings, which the captives have been subjected to, no one

has been killed excepting the two interpreters already mentioned.

After Colonel Cameron, the English Consul, had been two years a prisoner at Magdala, the central and chief fortress town of Abyssinia, the British Government sent Mr. Rassam, an Asiatic by birth, although then one of its employés at Aden, to endeavor to procure the release of Colonel Cameron and the missionaries. At that time, however, the mission was thought to be a hopeless one, for it was supposed that Theodore had a large and united army at his command, and it was supposed that his temper was so violent, that, should the British Government talk sternly and threaten him, he would immediately kill the prisoners and defy the English arins. Happily the English Minister, Lord Russell, had sent a note in the name of the Queen, and the French Premier, Druyn de l'Huys, had done the same in the name of Napoleon; but these did not wholly mend the matter. Mr. Rassam remained at Massonah, a Turkish port on the Red Sea, four hundred miles from Magdala, for more than a year, waiting for permission to go up into the interior; and when, at last, that permission was granted, Mr. Rassam was not allowed to take the direct route, but was compelled to make a detour of over two hundred miles. He enjoyed a gracious reception, however, and supposed that he should have no difficulty in accomplishing the object of his mission. He did, indeed, receive a distinct promise from Theodore that Colonel Cameron and all the other prisoners should be released, but it was soon withdrawn under the frivolous pretext that Theodore was fearing a combined Turkish and English invasion, and the captivity was prolonged. A Mr. Flad, one of the missionaries, was sent to England with a second letter to the Queen, beginning in this style: "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. From God's slave and His created being, the son of David, the son of Solomon, Theodore," &c. It was no less arrogant in its demands than the first, and was calculated to throw

the English nation into a perfect ferment. And, indeed, it did do this; and from that time the English mind was as firmly and fixedly made up that there must be a war with this doubledealing, vituperative, England-despising Theodore, as was the mind of the North, after the assault on Sumter, that there must be war with the South. True, it was thought very doubtful what the issue might be: many supposed that it would be the most impracticable contest on which England ever entered. Those great Abyssinian mountains would afford perfect impunity to the barbarian Emperor and his hordes; there was a desert march of four hundred miles from Massonah on the Red Sea, to Magdala, and the odds were, on the whole, awful. There could no pecuniary or commercial advantage come out of it, people said, yet it must be attempted. Two English consuls were then detained as captivesColonel Cameron and Mr. Rassam-and the British Lion was not the animal to stand quietly by and see itself defied and derided by a barbarous mountainchief, with however large an army under his control. Yet, the more that was learned about Theodore, gave the English confidence and assurance. It was certain that his army, ten years before so strong, was completely demoralized; indeed, it was conjectured that only a few thousand men could be relied upon as loyal. His guns and munitions were old-fashioned and clumsy, his fortifications not at all adapted to resist the assault of modern weapons. It was known, indeed, that he was cunning and unscrupulous, but he might be at any time at the mercy of his pas sions, and be hurried into hasty and illadvised action. The mountain-passes might perhaps be found as accessible to Europeans as to Abyssinians; and, indeed, it is now known that no barbarians can compete, either in endurance or in daring, with well-equipped and well-trained men of civilized lands.

It was only in last year (1867) that the English Government sent Theodore its ultimatum, and concluded to risk

every thing to save its honor and the lives of its subjects. It has always been one of the most creditable features of British history, that no man, owing allegiance to the English crown, has ever appealed to the throne in vain where the majesty of the British nation has been assaulted in him. Word was sent to the treacherous Theodore that three months would be given him to return the prisoners, and that, at the end of that time, should they not be forthcoming, war would be proclaimed against him. The African monarch defied the threat, and in the autumn of 1867 an English army, composed of about 10,000 men, under the command of General Robert Napier, landed at Massopaḥ, and began the march to Magdala. Their journey across the desert was slow and painful, and the threatened want of water proved a fearful trial and scourge. Fortunately, the American method of boring Artesian wells relieved this difficulty, and saved the army from death by thirst. The way was long-not far from three hundred miles. The army travelled with large numbers of mules and horses, to draw the heavy guns and the great baggagewagons; and numerous droves of cattle also accompanied the troops, for the purpose of supplying them with meat. Water was therefore a prime necessity; and, thanks to American skill and enterprise, it was gained by piercing deep below the desert surface.

It is unnecessary to tell in these pages the story of that march. The result is familiar in all minds. The conquest of Magdala on Good Friday of this year, the death of Theodore bravely fighting at the head of his troops, the recovery of all the English captives, are things of yesterday, and all know how triumphantly the English army triumphed over all obstacles, and made itself master of Abyssinia. What may in the future grow out of this conquest, it is impossible to conjecture. The country is rich in just those things which not England alone, but the civilized world, want— ivory, hides, and valuable woods; while the adjacent lands in the west produce