earth. The intended catastrophe, then, of this singular ambassador was remitted; but the truth of his mission was believed by the populace, and raised great scruples in every weak mind.
The many misfortunes that had lately befallen the troops of the king were accounted as so much increase of power to the rebel Melca Christos, who, encouraged by the correspondence he held with the chiefs of the Alexandrian religion, began now to take upon him the state and office of a king. His first essay was to fend, as governor to the province of Tigré, a son of that great rebel Za Selasse, whose manifold treasons, we have already seen, occasioned the death of two kings, Za Denghel and Jacob.
Asca Georgis was then governor of Tigré for Socinios, a man of merit and valour, but poor, and though related to the king himself, had very few soldiers to be depended on excepting his own servants, and two bodies of troops which the king had sent him to maintain his authority, and to keep his province in order.
The new governor, sent by the rebel Melca Christos, had with him a considerable army; and, knowing the weakness of Asca Georgis, he paraded through the province in the utmost security.
One Saturday which, in defiance of the king's edict, he was to solemnize as a festival equal to Sunday, he had resolved on a party of pleasure in a valley, where, much at his ease, he was preparing an entertainment for his troops and friends, and such of the province as came to offer their
