The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-05-23 00:00:00

THE LA4 CIE THEODORE.

- ---- -
Theodore's hotly was fount!, nut Hear those of his chiefs
its the gateway, bat alone On the hill above. . . . . I hap
pond to I, mar hr. Lamsdaine when he examined the
body, then still warm, and was told by him that he believed
Theodore to have committed suici,to. Ills lace seemed tip me
flail, a 1111 e alter ail that has been said about
it, bat then it was impossible to judge properly aft, r death,
especially as the eya was said to be, trom its fire and
expression. the Mast Tiler, was a look
of bloated, sensual Indulgence about the chee s by no means
heroic or singly, but tile forcheati was intellectual, and the
nicuth singularly determined and cruel. A very strange
smile still lingered &Katt the lips, as if even in the death-
throe lib; last thought had been one of triumph at having
baulked his conquerors fly dying 5 King.

THE ,CoURCE OF GOD."

Theodore's death is ueiversally regarded with unmixed
satist.el ion. It would lie affectation to pity a tyrant eh"
himself knew no pity, alio Was as unscrupulties and crafty
as he was cruel, and alto had, indeed, every reason to style
himself the seourge if liml " sent to pueish the lieople.
Ile has met with a death for more merciful than lie dealt
out to better men. aod fa, mere honourable than any trait
in his character, exeunt, perhaps, his dount'ess bravery alid
invincible determinathm deserved. Those few to whom these
totalities recommended him to sonic sort of mercy had only to
look fir a moment into the fearful charnel-house. the loath-
Solite human shambles which was yesterday exposed to our
horrified gaze as we neared Magdala, and every lingering
true'! Contionssiiin at once disapiteared. We had been told
by In l primanns, OUP fellow-countrymen. that the day before
the anival of the British arniy Theodore had summoned all
the prisonmsto his presence, sitdlial in cold blood butchered
over :tau of them, some of them with Ida owe hand, almost
within sight and hearing of the rest, who monieutarily ex-
pected the same fate. But though details of this kind make
one shudder, the mile! of * civilised man, whose wh, le ex-
perience runs c,iunter to a vivid faith in the act nal exist thee of
such atrocities, =one:how cannot fully realise them, or take in
their whoM terrible hiniort. Yesterday, however, nothing
was left ti the imagination, the tragedy was forced in ail its
naked horror upon nur revolted senses. A strange smell, for
which there WSs no apparent cause, made some of our
party look over the edge of a steep cliff almost within a
few yards of tbe spit fron6 which the guns were beginning
to play upon Magdala, slot there, on a ledge about fifty feet
below them, lop two largeteaps of mangled human bodies,
closely piled upon each other In ghastly confusion, their
limbs protruding front the mass in all louts of repulsive
attitudes and contortions, and presenting altogether Overlie
of horror melt as no pen could adequately describe, could
any Den be found to undertake the task. Dere was the
latest, though not by any means the worst, specimen of the
pious handiwork of the self-elected Swinge if God. More
munonly he mutilated and disabled Ins victims, having
m to tile of their' wounds, or to the more tender Mercy
of the hyena. On Dalanta Oils of the force picked up two
littallin halide, evidently not long cut off. The only excep-
tionally cruel feature ill this last massacre was its unusual
wantieine.m. The victims Were, many of them, prisoners for
very slight offences, and men of no importance, who might
, with perfect safety have been set free. Theodore feared the
expense of keeling them eluting a siege, and considered it
perhaps derogatory to iii dignity to let them go ; so he
nms.mereil them. It is ittpOlisible to feel pity for such •
• molt. Ills courage a, d resolution barely suffice to check a
ir-sr,t that even a soldier's death befall him. Many a
tim dish soldier swore as he looked down into the foul pit,
; that if Theodore that day fell into his hands the victims
slo add not be unrevenged

The following Is from tap Daily News Correxpondent
Worrite, Queen of the thillas, a lady said once to have pos-
sessed great personal attractions, though now at forty but
few traces of these remain, pahl Sir Robert a visit yesterday.
I fur old friend Meeshasha, the mole of flohazie, :11,1 ap-
peared to tender his respects to the conqueror. and his
Immlde demeanour on this occasion afforded a marked con-
tra,t to his former pr.ool bearing, , hen lie used to call up in
nor e..nonander at 5V:1:104, t 4 user him sapient advice ass,
how he v, as to bt-11.1, hefaref the terrible Theodore. Mag-
dala so ti be burned this evening.

T Xl,Al‘rt rLSTEAV, April 19.
While Worrite, Q11,(C11 of the Gallaa, eras yet in our camp
on a visit to Sir Ili a ivessuie Srl iv,-,!. saying that she
was ililt the real Sinion Lure, but that Niustynt, the true
urinals. ould call until pity her respects in a few tiny-.
IS iru ite hail lir 0 a Will like lady lul the stilt 0 Of her high
fortunes, which Ire', likelier beauty, are en the wane, and
three times di livered hat &ego Thedli ire, who slew her son,
retire demandi e, lie her pretensions to the thriae are
at piescat suppoileil by lgoselek, of Shea, hut the
great bulk tit the it:ilia:Maine to Mustyat, who
Ole kingdom VIA j ti:'ot for her child, a boy of nhosit
thit teen. Thi•re seas mit mach to be secn of MuAyaut
o l:ufioirll is ci. still a dewier escott, at head-
quarters late in the exeunt: Of the I rth, as site
, was N.1.111(41 is a crinieon robe, which extended over
and concealed tier face. Like all Aliyssiniaos, she rode
strait Ile-legged. lit, nest morning she and her son were
li, sit t heir Elio...graphs. The Imy was plainly
11111i1,1i. 1.11( NI I/1 e oit hi; lwad a large gold Crl,lVll of the
pats in iv ually rh itch in the etrimvilics of chillren's
dory hooks. ids inuttier remained at find with her visage
Itiiiihn, but opoa it being pointed out to her that in thi.
wa) ivy 1.0.:1 tillly OWL& a likeness of her dress, she,
without any affectation of reluctance, removed the folds of
her raw, and d closed the fair anti slimly face of a Unman
110 t 11111 ell over thirty, fully justifying her soubriquet of " the
looking-gin-a"
They hoth sat very steadily ort European chairs, Ind the
evident relief which they found in squatting on the ground
when dismissed to their teht by the sergeant of Engineers,
who acted as photographer, prised that the former was a
posture to which they were little habituated
The pioneers have been obliued to shoot ten of our will
allies, and a few more have fallen to the :Udders of the 4111,
and to Captain Murray's Arnistroll guns, but still they per-
sist ill committing all speates df atrocitioi on such of the late
garrison of ilagdala as dui can catch.
Pr' had viii L;tlt. aIA (11.1111111 el haasince been pri diably
added to, 23 prisone,a, bt:(1 ae...h.ed of nntrfier, eight of
pluoiler, and tile remainder of mutilating Al•yssinians in the
most liofrible faalihm.
On the evening of the same day a thick column of smoke
rising frotn 3lngdala proclaimed that the maim had been
given to the flames. It hail been onlered that the chapel
should be spared, butt from the position of the Indldiags, all
of them caroled with thatche tir.fs, it is extremely unlikely
that ice nlit Luca e,cii,ied tile general c,utlaurut
In the cluap.d lay Via n,dioa of Theoiiide and of the late
or chito priest of Abyssinia ; the litter had been
ii ici.ol, rather thmi intoned, in a wooden cell, with a
valuable g‘ild cross, oraa,,i,ted with emeralds, on his
breast, and some scandal had boon occasioned by its beinq
disco, ered shortly after our capture of We fort that the body
hail been disturbed and the c--OS atolen.
All the ortimumo hose bemi dest,myed, Ralll7 three 111(SM
Mkg,,, *Licit :ire douvcyed to kugland, and the large
Wafter .174. te eugibre, • and twice tins sire of
our larger, R 4411611 C(111 /.1 of Lie sumo chins, which
natio& all 1.14 a *darts #lhofinial", io de mi* lb,