Ras Michael fell back upon the army, which had encamped on the hill of Serbraxos; and it now was believed more than before, that the fate of the empire was to be determined on that spot. Another thing, however, appeared plain, that whatever belief Michael pretended in the prophecy, he would not have preferred fighting at Serbraxos, if he could by any means have given the rebels the slip, and marched his army into Begemder. The king was exceedingly pleased at the part he had taken that day; it was the first time he was engaged in person, nor did any body venture to condemn it; he shewed, indeed, very little concern at his brother's wound, which was only a slight one in the fleshy part of his thumb, nor did the young prince trouble himself much about it; on the contrary, when I went to dress and bind it up, he said to me, I wish, Yagoube, the shot had carried the thumb off altogether, it would have made me incapable of succeeding to the throne, and they would not then send me to the hill of Wechné. The king, upon hearing this, said with a smile, George forgets that Hatzé Hannes, my father and his, was called to the throne many years after his whole hand had been cut off. Every one agreed that Ras Michael had that day shewn a degree of intrepidity and military skill superior to any thing which had appeared in many former engagements in which he had commanded. No sooner had he refreshed himself with a meal, than he called a council of his officers, which lasted great part of the evening, notwithstanding the fatigue he had undergone throughout the day.
This was the first battle of Serbraxos, which, though it contained nothing decisive, had still two very material consequences, as it so daunted the spirits of the Begemder horse, that many chiefs of that country withdrew their troops, and went home, whilst such discord was sown among the leaders, that I believe they never sincerely trusted one another afterwards; Gusho and Ayabdar, in particular, were known to correspond with the king daily.
On the morrow after the battle, three messengers arrived from Gusho, Powussen, and Ayabdar, and each had a separate audience of the King and Ras, before whom they all three severally declared, that their masters desired to continue in allegiance to him their king, Tecla Haimanout, but under this condition only, that Ras Michael should be sent to his government of Tigrè, never more to return. They endeavoured to persuade the king also to take the sense of his army, the majority of which, they asserted, were ready to abandon him. If Michael should agree to return to Tigrè, they offered to carry the king to Gondar, place him in his palace, and allow him to choose his own ministers, and govern for the future after his own ideas. This, indeed, was the universal wish, and I did not see what Ras Michael could have done, had he adopted it; but fear, or gratitude, or both, restrained the young king from such a measure; and the messengers left him after a plain declaration, That they had endeavoured all in their power to save him, and he must now abide the consequences, for they washed their hands of them.
The rains were now become more frequent, and an epidemical fever had shewn itself in the rebel army on the plain; every consideration, therefore, seemed to persuade a speedy decision, but the consequences of the last engagement seemed to have damped the spirit of the rebels, without having much raised that of the king's army. In fact, the days were dark and wet, and the nights cold, circumstances in which no Abyssinian chooses to fight. The army was thinly cloathed, or not cloathed at all, and encamped on high ground, where fuel, though it had not failed them yet, must soon have done so.
An accident that happened this night had nearly brought about a revolution which the wisest heads had laboured for many years in vain. Ras Michael had retired to bed at his ordinary time, somewhat before eleven o'clock, and a lamp was left burning as usual in his tent, for he was afraid of spirits. He was just fallen asleep, when he felt a man's arm reach into the bed over him, which he immediately seized hold of, crying to his attendants, at the same time, for help. Those that ran first into the tent threw down the lamp and put out the light, so that the man would have escaped, had not the people behind got about him, and endeavoured to hold him down, while entangled in, and struggling with the cords of the tent. The first person that seized him was a favourite servant of the Ras, a young man named Laeca Mariam, of a good family in Tigrè; he, not perceiving his danger for want of light, received a stab with a broad knife, which pierced his heart, so that he fell without speaking a word. Numbers immediately secured the assassin, who was found to have dropt one knife within the Ras's tent, with which he had attempted at first to have stabbed him: but he was found to have another knife, two-edged, and sharp in the point, fixed along his arm, with which he had stabbed Laeca Mariam. This wretch was a native of a very barbarous nation near Shoa, S. E. of Gojam. The name of their country is Guragué. They are Troglodytes, and all robbers: their constant occupation is attending the Abyssinian camps, and stealing horses, mules, or whatever they can get, which they do in a very singular manner.
They all wear their hair very short, strip themselves stark-naked, and besmear themselves from head to foot with butter, or some sort of grease, whilst, along the outside of their arm, they tye a long, straight, two-edged, sharp-pointed knife, the handle reaching into the palm of their hand, and about four inches of the blade above the knob of their elbow, so that the whole blade is safe and inoffensive when the arm is extended, but when it is bent, about four inches projects, and is bare beyond the elbow joint; this being all prepared, they take a leafy faggot, such as the gatherers of fuel bring to the camp, which they fasten to their middle by a string or withy, spreading it over to conceal or cover all their back, and then drawing in their legs, they lie down, in all appearance, as a faggot, and in the part of the camp they intend to rob, crawling slowly in the dark when they think they are unperceived, and lying still when there is any noise or movement near them: In case they find themselves discovered, they slip the faggot and run; and whatever part of them you seize escapes your fingers by reason of the grease. If you endeavour to clasp them, however, which is the only way left, the Guragué bends his elbow and strikes you with his knife, and you are mortally wounded, as was the case with Laeca Mariam.
This assassin was no sooner secured and disarmed, than a noose, with a running knot, was slipt round his neck, and his hands tied behind his back, in which manner he was carried before Ras Michael, who sat upon a stool at some distance from his tent, after every part of it had been searched. The fellow at first refused to speak, but, being threatened with torture, answered, in his own language, which I did not understand. He was asked, who had employed him to attempt that assassination? He said, The rebels; and named Gusho and Powussen: he then varied, and said the Iteghé employed him. Before he was sent away he contradicted all this, and declared, that Hagos, his brother, had employed him; and that he was then actually in the camp, with four others, who were determined to murder the Ras and Guebra Mascal, whatever it should cost them.
A search was on this ordered through all the camp, but no stranger found, excepting one of the same nation, who had planted himself and his faggot near the tent of the Abuna; and who being seized, examined, and promised pardon, declared himself absolutely ignorant of any scheme but robbing, for which purpose three of them, he said, had come into the camp together; one of them had stolen two mules the night before, and gone off, and that he was that night intending to take away two of the Abuna's mules; and he supposed his companion had the same intention with regard to the Ras; but as to murder, or any other plot, he knew nothing of it. Being put slightly to the torture, he persisted in his declaration; and when interrogated, declared, that they all three had come from Guragué with Amha Yasous, to load and unload his baggage, and take care of his beasts: that none of them had been at Gondar before the attempt, except the assassin, who had formerly lived there some years, but whether with Hagos, or any other, he did not know, nor did he ever hear him pronounce the name of Hagos, nor see any stranger, whom he did not know, converse with him: that they all three had lain the last night at the church of Serbraxos: but he further declared, that the person apprehended spoke the Amharic language as well as his own, contrary to what the villain had all along pretended.