traitors whom he had induced to desert their true king. The killing of
Tambusa while on a message of peace had infuriated Dingane. He ordered
Nkunkundhlovu to be burnt, vowing to rebuild it no more until he had
driven the rebels and their white friends from the land, and exacted a
fearful vengeance for the slaughter of his faithful induna. So the
_izanusi_ were called up, and we were doctored for battle, and Lalusini,
or Mahlula, as she was known here, together with her band of girls
decked out in their richest dresses, stood forth and heartened the
warriors by their songs of battle and victory; even as she had once
heartened us to defeating, under the shadow of my white shield, these
very warriors with whom I now fought, and a section of whom I was now
leading. Yes, these hundreds of men, the Bapongqolo, were worth much to
Dingane now.

The day had come at last, and the nation was divided. And now, with the
one great struggle for the very life of the nation at our gates, Dingane
showed himself, as he never had so shown himself before, as a noble and
worthy warrior-king of a mighty warrior people.

It was the morning of the battle, that great struggle which should mean,
to him and his, all or nothing. Ha! he was great, he was majestic, that
warrior King, as he came forth to address his children--to hearten us
for what lay before us. Not that we needed burning words of
encouragement, for of all that dense array crouching there behind their
shields, not one at that moment but longed for the gleam of the spears
of Nongalaza to come into view.

Then the King stood forth arrayed in full war dress, his great form
towering to the height of the waving ostrich plumes which rose above his
head-ring--his head thrown back in royal pride as his eyes swept proudly
over the dense ranks of those who adhered to him--and his words rolled
like thunder upon the still air:

"My children, the day is upon us at last when the might of the People of
the Heavens is to be put upon its sorest trial; the day which is to
decide whether the name of Zulu is to blaze forth again in all its
brightness, to strike terror once more upon the world, or to become a
forgotten thing. For a space it has been hidden, but only that it might
blaze forth again the more brightly. Yonder there come against us
enemies. There are those who came among us with false words--calling
themselves a holy people--and striving, with fair words, to wrest from
us th