After the engagement, as every body had access to the king's presence, I did not choose to force my way through the crowd, but went round through the more private entry, by the bed-chamber, when I placed myself behind the king's chair. As soon as he saw me, he said, with great benignity, "I have not inquired nor sent for you, because I knew you would be necessarily busied among those of your friends, who have been wounded to-day; you are yourself, besides, hurt: how are you?" I answered, "that I was not hurt to-day, but, though often in danger, had escaped without any other harm than excessive fatigue occasioned by heat and weight of my coat of mail, and that one of my horses was killed under Ammonios."
I then took the red colours from the servant behind me, and going to the carpet spread before the king, laid them at his feet, saying, "So may all your majesty's enemies fall, as this arch rebel (the bearer of this) has fallen to-day;" a great murmur was immediately raised upon seeing these colours, and the king cried out with the utmost impatience, "Has he fallen into your hands, Yagoube? who was he, where did you meet him, or where did you slay him?" "Sir, said I, it was not my fortune to meet him to-day, nor did I slay him. I am no king-killer; it is a sin, I thank God, from which my ancestors are all free; yet, had Providence thrown in my way a king like this, I believe I might have overcome my scruples. He was killed, as I suppose, by a shot of Guebra Mascal, on the flank of our line; a soldier picked up the colours on the field, and brought them to me in hopes of reward, while you was engaged with the troops of Begemder, near the bank; but the merit of his death is with Guebra Mascal. I do him this justice, the rather because he is the only man in your majesty's army who bears me ill-will, or has been my constant enemy, for what reason I know not; but God forbid, that on this, or any personal account, I should not bear witness to the truth: this day, my fortune has been to be near him during the whole of it, and I say it from certain inspection, that to the bravery and activity of Guebra Mascal every man in your left wing owes his life or liberty."—"He is a shame and disgrace to his family, says the king's secretary, who was standing by him, if after this he can be your enemy."—"It must be a mistake, says the king's priest (Kiis Hatzè), for this should atone for it, though Yagoube had slain his brother."
While this conversation was going on, an extraordinary bustle was observed in the crowd, and this unquiet genius pushing through it with great violence, his goat's skin upon his shoulders, and covered with dust and sweat, in the same manner he came from the field; he had heard I was gone to the king's tent with the red flag, and not doubting I was to complain of him, or praise myself at his expence, had directly followed me, without giving himself time to make the least inquiry. He threw himself suddenly, with his face to the ground, before the throne, and rising as quickly, and in violent agitation, he said to the king, or rather bellowed, very indecently, "It is a lie Yagoube is telling; he does not say the truth; I meant him no harm but good to-day, and he did not understand my language. I don't say Yagoube is not as good a man as any of us, but it is a lie he has been telling now, and I will prove it."
A general silence followed this wild rhapsody; the king was surprised, and very gravely said, I am sorry, for your sake, if it is a lie; for my part, I was rash enough to believe it was true. Guebra Mascal was still going to make bad worse, by some absurd reply, when the secretary, and one or two of his friends, hauled him out behind the throne to one of the apartments within, not without some resistance, every one supposing, and many saying, he was drunk; the king was silent, but appeared exceedingly displeased, when I fell upon the ground before him, (a form of asking leave to speak upon any particular subject) and rising said, Sir, With great submission, it is not, I apprehend, true, that Guebra Mascal is drunk, as some have rashly said now in your presence; we have all ate and drank, and changed our cloathing since the battle; but this man, who has been on foot since five in the morning, and engaged all day, has not, I believe, ate or drank as yet; certainly he has not washed himself, or changed his habit, but has been taking care of his wounded men, and has presented himself now as he came from the field, under the unjust suspicion I was doing him wrong. I then repeated what had happened at the bank when the king was pursuing the troops of Begemder. Now I understand him, says the king, but still he is wrong, and this is not the first instance I have seen, when there was no such mistake. At this time a messenger came to call me from within.
The king divined the reason of sending, and said, No, he shall not go to Guebra Mascal; I will not suffer this. Go, says he to one of his servants that stood near him, desire the Ras to call Guebra Mascal, and ask him what this brutality means? I have seen two instances of his misbehaviour already, and wish not to be provoked by a third. At this instant came Kefla Yasous, with his left hand bound up, and a broad leaf like that of a plane upon his forehead. After the usual salutation, and a kind of joke of the king's on his being wounded, I asked him if he would retire and let me dress his forehead? which he shewing inclination to do, the king said, Aye, go, and ask Guebra Mascal why he quarrels with his best friends, and prevents me from rewarding him as he otherwise would have deserved. I went out with Kefla Yasous, being very desirous this affair should not go to the Ras, and we found Guebra Mascal in appearance in extreme agony and despair.
The whole story was told distinctly to Kefla Yasous, who took it up in the most judicious manner. He said he had been detained at his tent, but had come to the king's presence expressly to give Guebra Mascal the just praise he deserved for his behaviour that day: that he was very happy that I, who was near him all the action, and was a stranger, and unprejudiced (as he might be thought not to be) had done it so justly and so handsomely. At the same time he could not help saying, that the quarrel with Yagoube in the palace, the taunting speech made without provocation in the king's presence on the march, his apostrophe in the field, and the abrupt manner in which he ignorantly broke in upon the conversation before the king, interrupting and contradicting his own commendations, shewed a distempered mind, and that he acted from a bad motive, which, if inquired into, would inevitably ruin him, both with King and Ras; and he had heard indeed it already had done with the former.
Guebra Mascal, now crying like a child, condemned himself for a malicious madman in the two first instances: but swore, that on the field he had no intention but to save me, if occasion threw it in his way; for which purpose alone it was he had cried out to me to stand firm, for the troops of Begemder were coming upon us, but that I did not understand his meaning. Guebra Mascal advances nothing but truth, said I, to Kefla Yasous; I did not perfectly understand him to-day in the field, as he spoke in his own language of Tigrè, and stammers greatly, nor did I distinctly comprehend what he said across the pool, for the same reason, and the confusion we were in: I shall however most readily confess my obligation to him, for the opportunity he gave me to join the king. I am a stranger, and liable to err, whilst, for the same reason, I am entitled to all your protections and forgivenness. I am, moreover, the king's stranger, and as such, entitled to something more as long as I conduct myself with propriety to every one. I have never spoken a word but in Guebra Mascal's praise, and in this I have done him no more than justice; his impatience perverted what I had said; but the real truth, as I spoke it, remains in the ears of the king and of those that were by-standers, to whom I appeal.