Imprisonment of Mr. Stern--Mr. Kerans arrives with Letters and
Carpet--Cameron, with his Followers, is put in Chains--Mr.
Bardel's Return from the Soudan--Theodore's Dealings with
Foreigners--The Coptic Patriarch--Abdul Rahman Bey--The Captivity
of the Europeans explained.

Such was the state of affairs when Mr. Stern obtained leave to
return to the coast. Unfortunately it was impossible for him to
avail himself at once of this permission. On Mr. Stern at last
taking his departure he had to remain at Gondar a few days, and,
but too late, thought of presenting his respects to his Majesty.
He also accepted during his short stay there the hospitality of the
bishop. On the 13th October Mr. Stern, accompanied for a short
distance by Consul Cameron and Mr. Bardel, started on his homeward
journey. On arriving on the Waggera Plain he perceived the King's
tent. What followed is well known: how that unfortunate gentleman
was almost beaten, to death; and from that hour, almost without
remission, loaded with chains, tortured, and dragged from prison
to prison, until the day of his deliverance from Magdala by the
British army.

When speaking of Theodore's treatment of foreigners, I will endeavour
to explain the real cause of the misfortunes that befell Mr. Stern.
That he was only the victim of circumstances, is a fact beyond any
doubt. The extracts from his book and the notes from his diary,
brought as charges against him, were only discovered several weeks
_after_ many cruelties had been inflicted upon him. But I
believe that many small, apparently trifling, incidents combined
to make him the first European victim of the Abyssinian monarch.
The Emperor could not endure the thought that Europeans in his