Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 2.djvu/207

Rh with his musquet, so that the ball went through his body in the moment that both armies joined. Gragnè, finding that his wound was mortal, rode aside from the pressure of the troops towards a small thicket, and was closely followed by Peter Lyon, who saw him fall dead from his horse; and, desirous still to do further service in the battle, he would not incumber himself with his head, but, cutting off one of the ears, he put it in his pocket, and returned to the action. The Moorish army no sooner missed the presence of their general, than concluding all lost, they fell into confusion, and were pursued by the Portuguese and Abyssinians with a great slaughter, till the evening.

next morning, in surveying the dead, the body of Gragnè was found by an Abyssinian officer, who cut his head off, and brought it to the king, who received him with great honour and promise of reward. Peter Lyon stood a silent spectator of the impudence of his competitor; but Arius Dias, who knew the fact, desired the king's attention; saying, at the same time, "That he believed his majesty knew Gragnè well enough to suppose that he would not suffer any man to cut off his ear, without having it in his power to sever his head also; and consequently, that the ear must be in possession of a better man than he that had brought his head to the camp." Upon this, Peter Lyon pulled the ear out of his pocket, and laid it at the king's feet, amidst the acclamations of all present, for his bravery in revenging his old master's death, and his modesty in being content with having done so, without pretending to any other reward.