, the
whole of the chiefs and their followers declared that they would no
longer obey his orders, and only some twenty or thirty faithful men
remained with him.

The 33rd Regiment led the assault, and advanced up the steep road by
which the enemy had before descended to the attack. Fala and Sallasye
were covered with natives, and at every moment an attack was expected
upon us, although messages had been sent down by the chiefs saying that
they rendered their submission. The 33rd, however, gained the top of
the hill without a shot being fired, and there some 15,000 or 20,000
persons were seen sitting quietly down. Orders were given to disarm the
men, and they and their families were then suffered to leave, and the
force moved over the shoulder of Sallasye towards Magdala itself.

A small party of officers and others, riding on in advance, came, at the
edge of the shoulder connecting Sallasye with Magdala, upon some fifteen
of Theodore's guns, which he had not had time to take with him into
Magdala. At the same moment a party of horsemen, among whom the natives
recognised Theodore himself, came down the steep path from the fortress,
and rode about on the plateau, brandishing their arms and shouting
defiance. The officers dismounted, and finding some cases of ammunition
with the guns, turned these upon Theodore, and speedily drove him and
his companions up into the fortress again.

Presently the 33rd and Naval Brigade arrived on the spot, as well as
Penn's Battery, and fire was opened upon Magdala by the guns and
rockets. Soon some of the conical thatched houses which covered the top
of Magdala were in flames, and after half an hour's fire the 33rd
advanced to the attack. As they ascended the steep hill, shots were
fired from the inside. The 33rd replied by thrusting their muskets
through the loopholes; others climbed up a steep shoulder, from which
they commanded the back of the gate. The defenders were shot down, and
the English soon entered the place. A few shots more only were fired,
and one of these proved fatal to the Abyssinian king. Whether he killed
himself, or whether he was shot, will ever remain a disputed question.
But the general opinion was that he fell by his own hands. Certain it
was that the shot entered his mouth and passed out at the back of his
head.

The work of the expedition was now over. Great numbers of native
prisoners, many of whom had been detained in Magdala for years, were
r