But on that Sunday evening Theodore was informed by the chief whom he had sent down with the cattle, that the cows had been stopped at the first picket and had not been admitted into the camp. He saw at once that he had been misled and that the British commander intended to abate nothing from the original terms. At dawn the next morning (Easter Monday, April 13th), he called on the warriors who loved him to take nothing but their arms and follow him; the time had come, he said, to seek another home. Followed by four chiefs and a few soldiers, he went up into Magdala, passed through it and out at the other side through the gate leading to the saddle that communicated with the Tanta plateau. But after having gone a little way, his men refused to follow him, and he returned with them into Magdala, and thence went down again to Islamgyé. Meanwhile information had reached the British camp that Theodore had fled from Magdala. The troops were immediately put in motion, while a notice was sent among the Gallas offering a reward for the King's capture. The two brigades scaled the steep ascent of the saddle connecting Fâla with Selassyé, meeting with no opposition whatever. The British regiments slowly advanced until they reached the nearer end of the saddle of Islamgyé. Here they found the greater number of Theodore's guns with their ammunition. A number of chiefs, richly dressed, were seen at the farther end of Islamgyé, galloping wildly about and occasionally firing off their rifles. These in a short time were seen to ascend the steep path leading up into Magdala, pass through the gate called the Koket Bir, and close it after them. About this time authentic information reached the general that Theodore had not escaped, but was still in Magdala. He was one among those who had been just seen to ascend from Islamgyé into the fortress. Sir Robert Napier thought it necessary, in these circumstances, to cannonade Magdala with all the artillery at his disposal. Theodore, and the few followers who remained faithful to him, upon entering the place at the Koket Bir, closed the gate and blocked it up with large stones. This gate stood some distance below the edge of the plateau, at the very brink of which was a second gate. On the rocks, between the two gates, attended by a faithful few, Theodore sat and watched the practice of the English guns. The shells burst all around him; his faithful Minister Ras Engeda and his brother were killed by the same shell.
At 4 P.M. a storming party—consisting of the 33rd Regiment led by Major Cooper, the 10th Company of Royal Engineers, and a company of Madras Sappers—was ordered to attack the Koket Bir. The long line of red-coats wound up the steep pathway, keeping up a hot fire on the hedge and gate above them. A feeble dropping fire was the only reply. For when the bombardment became too hot, nearly all Theodore's followers consulted their safety and fled, taking refuge in the huts on Magdala. The King, and about ten persons who still adhered to him, went down into the Koket Bir when the soldiers commenced to climb the steep, and fired upon them through some rudely constructed loop-holes. Seven men were wounded by this fire. When the soldiers reached the gate, it was found impossible to force it, owing to the large stones with which it had been blocked up; but, after a short delay, a way was made through the hedge on each side of the gate, and the 33rd thus got within the place, removed the stones, and opened the doors to admit the rest of the storming party. The King, meanwhile, had retired up the hill and passed within the second gate. Of his ten companions, six were wounded, more or less seriously. Here he dismissed all his surviving followers, except his faithful valet Walda Gabir, telling them to leave him and save their own lives. "Flee," he said, "I release you from your allegiance; as for me, I shall never fall into the hands of the enemy." As soon as they were gone, he turned to Walda Gabir, and said, "It is finished! Sooner than fall into their hands, I will kill myself." He put a pistol into his mouth, fired it, and fell dead; the ball passing through the roof of the mouth and out at the back of the head.
So ended the career of a man who, if he had inherited a purer and more practical Christianity, and learned to control his passions, might have raised his country's name from obscurity, spread the influences of religion and civilisation through Eastern Africa, and lived in history as one of the benefactors of mankind. Wrath and sensuality were his ruin.
The rest may be briefly told. The huts on Magdala were burnt by order of the British general, and this outpost of Christianity fell again into the hands of the ferocious Gallas. North of the river Beshilo, Sir Robert recognised the authority of the Wakshum Gobazye. Theodore's Queen, Terunesh, and her little boy, Alamayahu, were among the inhabitants of Magdala at the time of its capture, and were consigned to the care of Mr. Rassam. The Queen said that it had been Theodore's last wish that his son should be taken charge of by the British; and this wish was complied with. The boy, who was about ten years old at this time, was placed in charge of the Rev. Dr. Jex Blake, then Principal of Cheltenham College. The unfortunate youth died in 1879. The Queen herself wished to return to her native province, Semyen; but on the way down she died, and was buried at Chelicut near Antalo. The British army commenced its return march on the 18th of April. The arrangements for the march to the coast and the embarkation were made with great judgment and forethought, and the last man of the expedition had left Annesley Bay before the end of June. The landing-piers, wells, roads, and whatever plant had been left behind as not worth removal, came into the possession of the Egyptians, and Abyssinia was sealed up again from intercourse with the outer world, as before the expedition.
Honours were lavished freely on the chief officers in command of the expedition. Sir Robert Napier received the Grand Cross of the Bath and a pension, and was made a peer with the title of Lord Napier of Magdala. General Merewether was made an extra Knight Commander of the Star of India. In moving that the thanks of the House of Commons be given to Sir Robert Napier and his army, Mr. Disraeli, after an eloquent enumeration of the obstacles which they had surmounted, said that that had been accomplished which not one of them ten years ago could have fancied even in his dreams, and they had seen "the standard of St. George hoisted upon the mountains of Rasselas."
Meanwhile Europe was disturbed by those admonitory gusts which portend a coming storm. In France the year passed over uneventfully, but there were many indications of growing discontent. Rochefort began to write in the Lanterne his withering satires against the Imperial Government; and at a public distribution of prizes at the Sorbonne, the son of Marshal Cavaignac, encouraged by his mother and by the sympathy of his fellow-students, refused to receive his prize from the hands of the Prince Imperial. The continual progress of Russia in Central Asia, silent mostly and unmarked, like the rising tide, arrested this year the attention of all Europe, when the news arrived that Samarcand, the ancient capital of Turkestan, and the favourite residence of Timour, had fallen before the arms of General Kaufmann. The Ameer of Bokhara was defeated in several engagements; and Bokhara itself was taken by the Russians, but not permanently occupied, and thenceforward the Cossack advance towards India seriously affected British foreign policy. The Cretan insurrection—which broke out in the summer of 1866, and in which the insurgents, aided by the continual influx of volunteers and supplies from Greece, had resisted for two years and a half the utmost efforts of the Turkish monarchy for its suppression—came to an end at the close of 1868, through the sheer exhaustion of the islanders. To Turkey also the situation of things had become intolerable, and the Turkish Minister at Athens delivered an ultimatum to the Greek Government on the 10th of December, demanding the dispersion within five days of the volunteers enlisted for the Cretan insurgents, and a pledge that no more should be permitted to be enrolled; and requiring Greece to act for the future in conformity with existing treaties. Greece refused the ultimatum, and diplomatic relations were broken off between her and Turkey. The Great Powers interposed, and it was arranged that a conference should be held at Paris early in 1869 to treat of the relations between Turkey and Greece. At this conference, which met on the 9th of January, the discussion lasted over ten days. It was finally decided that Greece should abstain for the future from favouring or tolerating within its territory the formation of bands destined to act against Turkey; and should also take the necessary measures to prevent the equipment in its ports of vessels destined to aid or comfort, in whatever manner, insurrection within the dominions of the Sultan. In Spain, the Bourbon sovereign Isabella, driven from the throne this year by a successful revolution, was compelled to seek as an exile and a suppliant the land that had nursed her ancestors, thanks to the arbitrary régime of her Ministers. A Provisional Government, with Marshal Serrano for President and Prim for Commander-in-Chief, was established. Except that they were not Republicans, the new rulers of Spain proceeded to adopt measures of the usual revolutionary hue. The absolute liberty of the press was decreed; and universal toleration was proclaimed, except for the Jesuits, whose colleges and institutions were ordered to be closed within three days in Spain and the Spanish colonies, the Order itself being suppressed and its property sequestrated to the State. The Republican party was dissatisfied and rose in arms at Cadiz in December. General Caballero di Roda marched against them and persuaded them to submit to the Government. The disintegrating tendency was checked for the moment, only to reappear afterwards in a more virulent form. The general sentiment of the Spanish people was in favour of monarchy, but no monarch could for a long time be found and the search was to involve Europe in short but destructive war.
ST PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL, DUBLIN. (From a Photograph by W. Lawrence.)