quarrel with the English, though gladly I would have fought the
Dutch had not Sompseu stretched out his arm over their land. But
how can I disband the army and make an end of the regiments that
have conquered in so many wars? Macumazahn, I tell you that if I
did this, in a moon I should be dead. Oh! you white people think
there is but one will in Zululand, that of the king. But it is
not so, for he is but a single man among ten thousand thousand,
who lives to work the people's wish. If he beats them with too
thick a stick, or if he brings them to shame or does what the
most of them do not wish, then where is the king? Then, I say,
he goes a road that was trodden by Chaka and Dingaan who were
before me, yes, the red road of the assegai. Therefore today, I
stand like a man between two falling cliffs. If I run towards
the English the Zulu cliff falls upon me. If I run towards my
own people, the English cliff falls upon me, and in either case I
am crushed and no more seen. Tell me then, Macumazahn, you whose
heart is honest, what must I do?"

So he spoke, wringing his hands, with tears starting to his eyes,
and upon my word, although I never liked Cetewayo as I had liked
his father, Panda, perhaps because I loved his brother, Umbelazi,
whom he killed, and had known him do many cruel deeds, my heart
bled for him.

"I cannot tell you, King," I answered, thinking that I must say
something, "but I pray you do not make war against the queen, for
she is the most mighty One in the whole earth, and though her
foot, of which you see but the little toe here in Africa, seems
small to you, yet if she is angered, it will stamp the Zulus
flat, so that they cease to be."

"Many have told me this, Macumazahn. Yes, even Uhamu, the son of
my uncle Unzibe, or, as some say, the son of his spirit, to which
his mother was married after Unzibe was dead, and others
throughout the land, and in truth I think it myself. But who can
hold the army which shouts for war? Ow! the Council must decide,
which, means perhaps that Zikali will decide, for now all hang
upon his lips."

"Then I am sorry," I exclaimed.

He looked at me shrewdly.

"Are you? So am I. Yet his counsel must be asked, and better
that it should be here in my presence than yonder secretly at the
Black Kloof. I would kill him if I dared, but I dare not, who am
sure--why I may not say--that the same sun will see his death and
mine."

He waved his hand to show tha