and peace falls upon the land, the peace of death, then
you shall go, Macumazahn, and not before."

"At least, Zikali, send a message to the captains of the English
army and tell them that we are here."

"Send a message to the hyenas and tell them where the carcase is;
send a message to the hunters and tell them where the buck Zikali
crouches on its form! Hearken, Macumazahn, if you do this, or
even urge me again to do it, neither you nor your friends shall
ever leave the Black Kloof. I have spoken."

Then understanding that the case was hopeless, I left him and he
glowered after me, for fear had made him cruel. He had won the
long game and success had turned to ashes in his mouth. Or
rather, he had not won--yet--since his war was against the House
of Senzangacona from which he and his tribe had suffered cruel
wrong. To pull it down he must pull down the Zulu nation; it was
like burning a city to destroy a compromising letter. He had
burnt the city, but the letter still remained intact and might be
produced in evidence against him. In other words Cetewayo yet
lived. Therefore his vengeance remained quite unslaked and his
danger was as great, or perhaps greater than it had ever been
before. For was he not the prophet who by producing the Princess
of Heaven, the traditional goddess of the Zulus, before the eyes
of the king and Council, had caused them to decide for war? And
supposing it were so much as breathed that this spirit which they
seemed to see, had been but a trick and a fraud, what then? He
would be tortured to death if his dupes had time, or torn limb
from limb if they had not, that is if he could die like other
men--a matter as to which personally I had no doubts.

Shortly after I left Zikali Heda and I ate our evening meal
together. Anscombe, as it chanced, had gone by the secret path
to the tableland of which I have spoken, where he amused himself,
as of course we were not allowed to fire a gun, by catching
partridges, with the help of an ingenious system of grass nets
which he had invented. There were springs on this tableland that
formed little pools of water, at which the partridges, also
occasionally guineafowl and bush pheasants, came to drink at
sunrise and sunset. Here it was that he set his nets and retired
to work them at those hours by means of strings that he pulled
from hiding-places. So Heda and I were alone.

I told her of my ill success with Zikali, at which she was much