CAESAR IN ABYSSINIA 369

far corner on the floor, where thick carpets were piled,
drawing their khaki mantles round them, joking and
laughing. Under the coverless glare of the electric light
which burnt from the yellow ceiling, they showed in its
naked, almost effete outline, the terrible irresponsibility in
time of crisis to which the Emperor was one of the few
exceptions among leading Ethiopians. Ras Kassa, noble
head and talkative tongue, was called into the Emperor's
sombre chamber. Selecting the easiest chair, he crossed
his legs for a long sitting, and opened his Nestorian preamble.
The young Ethiopians outside grumbled a little more,
then melted away into the dark. " We shall never see the
Emperor,55 they said, " now that Kassa has got in." They
never did.

I said good-bye to Sirak, George, the Martins, Ayenna
Birru, to some of them for the last time, I fancy. They were
all young men educated abroad, and they did their duty.
With a premonition of regret I looked out after them into
the blackness of Addis Ababa thinly pierced with flame
even now.

It must have been then that the Emperor at last decided
to go. Reason, the appeal to the League, allied itself to
the instinct of flight : reason in exhaustion found itself the
weaker second to the partnership.

Ato Wolde Giorghis was sent up to the British Legation.
Ras Kassa stopped talking. Irnru, who had arrived in
Debra Markos, was informed by telephone of his sovereign's
decision.

2 A