the close of the year 1867, a military expedition set out from India, under the orders of Sir Robert Napier, commander-inchief of the army of Bombay. The expedition in itself was an extremely difficult and perilous one, across wild regions without roads, exposed to all the rigors of a rude and variable climate, through mountain gorges and over heights ten thousand feet above the sea, for a distance of about four hundred miles. To add to the difficulties of the march no supplies could be obtained, and it was necessary to carry provisions for the entire march.

Early in the month of April, 1868, Sir Robert Napier, with his little army, arrived at the foot of the rocky cliffs whereon stood the Abyssinian capital. The prisoners had tasted again and again all the bitterness of death before their liberators had been able to cross the deserts and mountains, and come to their relief. King Theodore fluctuated between paroxysms of rage and caprices of friendly intercourse with his prisoners; he was at times boastful, but at last seemed to fall into increasing dejection. More than once the captives believed their last hour had come; but, as if by an instinct of prudence, the barbaric sovereign still spared their lives, until at last the near approach of the English force was announced. The armed multitude of the Abyssinians flung themselves upon the invaders and were repulsed with heavy loss, while the little English army stood steadily under the shock. The attacks were renewed again and again. Finally, King Theodore sent down all the prisoners to Sir Robert Napier, but he himself still refused to surrender, and the English general ordered an assault.

The fortress of Magdala was built upon a rocky height, the ascent to which was possible only by two narrow paths, each leading up to a strong gateway. Sir Robert Napier selected the northern side for his attack. The English soldiers made the At ascent, forced the massive gates and rushed into the town.

their first step inside the walls, they came upon the dead body of King Theodore. Unable to defend himself, he would not survive his defeat, and had fallen by his own hand.

The fortress of Magdala was razed to the ground, and the town destroyed. "Nothing but blackened rock remains," wrote the conqueror. He had been unwilling to leave the place to become the almost inaccessible stronghold of a fierce Mohammedan tribe of the neighborhood, hostile to the Abyssinian Christians.

The expedition had been conducted with a regularity and precision both in the plan and its execution that left no room for accident or for uneasiness. The task was accomplished; King Theodore's widow had survived him but a few days, and their son, a boy of seven years, was taken charge of by Queen Victoria, and brought to England to be educated, where, however, the climate soon proved fatal to him. The English general did not seek to interfere in the quarrels of the Abyssinian chiefs who disputed for King Theodore's possessions among themselves. In less than a week after the taking of Magdala, the English troops were on their way to the coast. On the 21st of June, the first detachment of troops sent home from Abyssinia landed at Plymouth. Their victorious chief was made Baron Napier of Magdala, and the acclamations of all England saluted the success of his arms, skilfully and effectively employed toward a praiseworthy end, never for a moment overstepped, a rare example of military precision and political good sense, doing honor to the leader and to the army who had wisely and bravely carried out the wise instructions of their government.

CHAPTER XIV.

MR. GLADSTONE'S ADMINISTRATION.

HE Fenian Association openly formed in America for the service of Ireland and in her interests, the secret ramifications of this society upon the Western Continent, and the outbreaks in Ireland and England which had already resulted from it, had excited the attention and the anxiety of many Englishmen, thus painfully made aware of the malady always secretly rife in Ireland. Mr. Gladstone had been more impressed by these signs of danger than had any other person; and certain convictions which had long been forming in his mind suddenly came to maturity. Henceforth he felt that England had a duty to perform, that the complaints of Ireland, at one time uttered in low murmurs, at another, breaking into loud clamor, could no longer be disregarded, and that the evil had become so great as to demand an immediate remedy. The deep and indestructible antagonism between the two races did not, in his opinion, arise merely from their difference in religion, but from the fact that the Established Church, consisting of a very small minority, practised oppression towards the members of the Roman Catholic communion, who form the large majority of the population of Ireland. From this time, the project of establishing equality between the two churches which divide the sister kingdom became in Mr. Gladstone's mind a panacea for all the discords which had embittered and still saddened the union of Ireland and England. As courageous as he was positive in his convictions, and always eager to bring a remedy