After a while we were told to advance, as Mr. Rassam had left the
King and was moving on.
I was walking in front of our party, and great was my surprise,
after a few steps, on arriving at a sudden turn in the road, to
find myself face to face with Theodore. I at once perceived that
he was in a fearful passion. Behind him stood about twenty men in
a line, all armed with muskets. The spot on which he was standing
is a small platform, so narrow that I would have almost to touch
him on my way onwards. Below the platform the precipice was abrupt
and deep; above, the rocks rose like a huge wall: evidently he could
not have chosen a better place if he had any evil intentions against
us.
He could not have seen me at first, as his face was half turned;
he whispered something to the soldier nearest to him, and stretched
out his hand to take the man's musket. I was quite prepared for the
worst, and, at the moment, had no doubt in my mind that our last
hour had come.
Theodore, his hand still on his musket, turned round; he then
perceived me, looked at me for a second or two, dropped his hand,
and in a low sad voice asked me how I was, and bade me good-by.
The chief on the following day told me that, at the time, Theodore
was undecided as to whether he would kill us all or not; only
allowing Mr. Rassam to go on account of his personal friendship for
him, and that we owed our lives to the mere accident that his eye
first fell upon me, against whom he had no animosity; but that the
result would have been quite different had his anger been roused
by the sight of those he hated.
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