o think. Powerful beyond
all others I knew Lalusini's magic to be; was it then sufficiently
powerful to bring her back from the dead? I thought much of this during
the days that followed.

But the days that followed brought that which turned all our thoughts in
an entirely new direction, for tidings came which were weighty indeed.
The Amabuna [Boers] were advancing into the land of Zulu.

They were swarming in, men said. The slopes of Kwahlamba were covered
with flocks and herds--their waggon teams were winding through the
mountain passes, seen like vast serpents in the distance, far as the eye
could see. In the face of this new enemy Umzilikazi was forgotten. No
expedition to the North could be undertaken now. Day by day men brought
tidings. The numbers of the Amabuna were countless, they said, and with
them, besides their flocks and herds, they had their women and children
in their waggons. They had come to remain in this land.

Well was it, now, that the army had been called up, and was disposed in
or around the Great Place; well indeed for us now, for we would need all
our strength to beat back or stamp out this locust swarm. Bitter and
stubborn fighters were they, and knew how to use their long guns. The
war-song was sung, and war-dances were held among our regiments, and the
talk of all men was of war.

But Dingane was uneasy in his mind, and in his rage at not being sooner
informed of the advance of the Amabuna, he sent for the head men of the
outlying kraals and had them killed. Two of them he ordered to be
impaled upon stakes, within sight of all in Nkunkundhlovu.

Now hard by there dwelt a white man--an _Umfundisi_ [Teacher or
missionary], one of your countrymen, _Nkose_. Him the King had allowed
to live there because he was the friend of another white man who had
visited the country alone and in a friendly manner a short while before,
but Dingane had no love for him or his teaching, nor had any of us in
those days. This man, seeing from his house the death of those
evil-doers, came quickly down to Nkunkundhlovu, hoping he might save the
lives of others, for he was a man with a kind heart and hated to behold
suffering.

Now as he came before the King he was very pale, for he had passed close
to the place of slaughter where lay those just slain, with broken
skulls; and the sight of the agony of the two upon the stakes turned him
very sick.

"You are somewhat late, my father," said Dingane,