These news occasioned Fasil to throw off the mask: he now publicly avowed it was his intention to restore Tecla Haimanout to the throne, and that, rather than fail in it, he would replace Ras Michael in all his posts and dignities. He said that Socinios was created for mockery only; and publicly asserted, that he was not son of Yasous, but of one Mercurius, a private man at Degwassa; and indeed he bore not, in his features or carriage, any resemblance to the royal family from which he pretended to be descended.
Socinios now saw that he was from henceforward to look upon Fasil as an enemy. Orders were accordingly given to shut the gates of the palace, and to station a number of troops in the different courts and avenues leading to the king's apartment. No person was to be admitted to the king without examination. The drums were beat, and constant guard kept; and three hundred Mahometans taken into his service as musketeers; a measure that gave great offence.
Fasil had taken up his residence in the house which belonged to the office of Ras, at the other end of the town; and, to shew his contempt for the king, was very slightly guarded, his army remaining encamped under the palace. One thing at this time seemed particularly remarkable; a drum was heard to beat in the house where Fasil was; whereas it is an invariable rule, that no drum is suffered to beat in the capital any where but in the house where the king resides. It was said that king Yasous, second son to the Iteghé, or queen-mother, and father to Joas, had left two sons by a slave of the queen; indeed he had so many by low people, that very little care was taken of them, not even that of sending them to the mountain Wechné. One of
