MURDER OF LE NOIR DU ROULE being disgusted with the scant courtesy which he had shown them, they joined in the cry that he was a magician, and tried to persuade the king to make an end of him. The king strongly objected to do this, but he made up for his selfrestraint by demanding a gift of 3,000 dollars from du Roule ; this demand was, of course, refused, and the king was thereby greatly offended, Du Roule now fully realized that he was in no inconsiderable danger, and he asked leave to depart from Sennaar ; twice the king gave him leave to do so, and twice was the leave withdrawn. On November loth for the third time he received leave to depart, and as all his possessions were ready packed, he at once set out to leave the city. He walked from his lodging to the large square in front of the king's house, accompanied by two native Christians and his French servant Gentil ; his dragomans MM. Lippi and Mace were on horseback, and a Nubian servant led his horse. As soon as du Roule came into the middle of the square, which was the common place of execution for criminals, four blacks attacked him, and murdered him with their sabres. All his companions were murdered at the same time, with the exception of M. Mace, who shot two of his assailants dead ; he continued to defend himself with his sword, but a horseman coming up behind him drove a spear through his back, and threw him upon the ground dead. Du Roule died like a man, and, believing that his person was sacred because he was an ambassador, he in no way defended himself against those who attacked him, but left his revenge to the guardians of the law. Directly after the murder of du Roule, the friars, who had left Sennaar immediately before his arrival, returned, and they sought to lay the blame first upon the king of Abyssinia, then upon the king of Sennaar, and then upon both. Subsequently, however, it was proved that the former king was innocent, and that the latter was an unwilling agent, who had on two occasions made du Roule return to his house in order to delay the fulfilment of his pledge to have him murdered, the giving of which he much repented.

That lyasus,^ king of x\byssinia, had nothing to do with the ^ 'tydsus 'Adyam Sagad I. was crowned in 1682, was deposed in March, 1706, and murdered in October of the same year.

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