to be swept away by case-shot and the hail of bullets.  This battle, by the way, the Zulus call, not Ulundi or Nodwengu, for it was fought in front of Panda’s old kraal of that name, but Ocwecweni, which means—­“the fight of the sheet-iron fortress.”  I suppose they give it this name because the hedge of bayonets, flashing in the sunlight, reminded them of sheet-iron.  Or it may be because these proved as impenetrable as would have done walls of iron.  At any rate they dashed their naked bodies against the storm of lead and fell in heaps, only about a dozen of our men being killed, as the little graveyard in the centre of the square entrenchment, about which still lie the empty cartridge cases, records to-day.

There, then, on that plain perished the Zulu kingdom which was built up by Chaka.

Now it was after this event that I saw Zikali and begged him to let us go.  I found him triumphant and yet strangely disturbed and, as I thought, more apprehensive than I had ever seen him.

“So, Zikali,” I said, “if what I hear is true, you have had your way and destroyed the Zulu people.  Now you should be happy.”

“Is man ever happy, Macumazahn, when he has gained that which he sought for years?  The two out there sigh and are sad because they cannot be married after their own white fashion, though what there is to keep them apart I do not know.  Well, in time they will be married, only to find that they are not so happy as they thought they would be.  Oh! a day will come when they will talk to each other and say—­’Those moons which we spent waiting together in the Black Kloof were the true moons of sweetness, for then we had something to gain; now we have gained all—­and what is it?’

“So it is with me, Macumazahn.  Since the Zulus under Chaka killed out my people, the Ndwandwe, year by year I have plotted and waited to see them wedded to the assegai.  Now it has come about.  You white men have stamped them flat upon the plain of Ulundi; they are no more a nation.  And yet I am not happy, for after all it was the House of Senzangacona and not the people of the Zulus, that harmed me and mine, and Cetewayo still lives.  While the queen bee remains there may be a hive again.  While an ember still glows in the dead ashes, the forest may yet be fired.  Perhaps when Cetewayo is dead, then I shall be happy.  Only his death and mine are set by Fate as close together as two sister grains of corn upon the cob.”

I turned the subject, again asking his leave to depart to Natal or to join the English army.

“You cannot go yet,” he answered sternly, “so trouble me no more.  The land is full of wandering bands of Zulus who would kill you and your blood would be on my head.  Moreover, if they saw a white woman who had sheltered with me, might they not guess something?  To dress a doll for the part of the Inkosazana-y-Zulu is the greatest crime in the world, Macumazahn, and what would happen to the Opener of Roads and all his House if it were even breathed that he had dressed that doll and thus brought about the war which ruined them?  When Cetewayo is killed and the dead are buried and peace falls upon the land, the peace of death, then you shall go, Macumazahn, and not before.”