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