Bruce, leaving Aylo with the queen, now returned to the Moors' town. In the afternoon he heard that Welletta Selasse was dead; and at night, Welled Hawaryat died also. The contagion from Masuah and Adowa had spread itself all over Gondar. The daughter of Ozoro Altash was now sick, and a violent fever had fallen upon Koscam. The next morning Aylo came to Bruce, and told him that all faith in the saint, who had not eaten or drank for twenty years, was abandoned since Welled Hawaryat's death; and that it was the desire of the queen and Ozoro Esther that he should remove to Koscam, to the iteghe's palace, where all their children and grandchildren would be placed under his care.
One cannot help here remarking the favourable effect produced by the strong manly sense which seems on this and every other occasion to have regulated Bruce's conduct. His sound religious sentiments he does not fear to avow; though a stranger in the land, he firmly declares to the iteghe that he has no faith in the miraculous remedy proposed for Welled Hawaryat; and yet, a short time before, we see him prostrating himself at the feet of the very person whose opinions he now opposed; for Bruce's mind rightly appreciated those distinctions which to so many are imperceptible. He had no paltry objections to conform to the ceremonial customs of Abyssinia, absurd as they might be; no foolish pride to present himself before the iteghe with a salutation which she could not comprehend, by offering an English bow, when an African obeisance, such as she had been accustomed to, was required: obstinacy on this point would have at once ruined all his hopes. Had he, again, through fear or any other weakness, concealed his religious opinions, or hesitated to avow his incredulity in the remedy administered to Welled Hawaryat, not only would he have been guilty of duplicity, but would have lost the favourable occasion now presented for raising himself in the opinion of the iteghe. It was Bruce's good sense as well as his unconquerable resolution--his head as well as his heart, which enabled him to penetrate the regions of Abyssinia.
Bruce at first declined attending the iteghe, as Petros had desired him to stay in the Moors' town till the ras should arrive; but Aylo again came to him to say that he must come immediately.