any
oxen to sell, saying that this was my reason for visiting the kraal.

"'Nay, Macumazahn,' he answered in a meaning voice. 'This year all the
cattle are the king's.'

"I nodded and replied that, as it was so, I had better be going,
whereon, as I half expected, Magepa announced that he would see me safe
to the drift. So I bade farewell to the wives and the widowed daughter,
and we started.

"As soon as we were clear of the kraal Magepa began to open his heart to
me.

"'Macumazahn,' he said, looking up at me earnestly, for I was mounted,
and he walked beside my horse, 'there is to be war. Cetewayo will not
consent to the demands of the great White Chief from the Cape,'--he
meant Sir Bartle Frere--'he will fight with the English; only he will
let them begin the fighting. He will draw them on into Zululand and then
overwhelm them with his impis and stamp them flat, and eat them up; and
I, who love the English, am very sorry. Yes, it makes my heart bleed.
If it were the Boers now, I should be glad, for we Zulus hate the Boers;
but the English we do not hate; even Cetewayo likes them; still, he will
eat them up if they attack him.'

"'Indeed,' I answered; and then as in duty bound I proceeded to get what
I could out of him, and that was not a little. Of course, however, I did
not swallow it all, since that I suspected that Magepa was feeding me
with news that he had been ordered to disseminate.

"Presently we came to the mouth of the kloof in which the kraal stood,
and here, for greater convenience of conversation, we halted, for I
thought it as well that we should not be seen in close talk on the open
plain beyond. The path here, I should add, ran past a clump of green
bushes; I remember they bore a white flower that smelt sweet, and were
backed by some tall grass, elephant-grass I think it was, among which
grew mimosa trees.

"'Magepa,' I said, 'if in truth there is to be fighting, why don't you
move over the river one night with your people and cattle, and get into
Natal?'

"'I would if I could, Macumazahn, who have no stomach for this war
against the English. But there I should not be safe, since presently the
king will come into Natal too, or send thirty thousand assegais as his
messengers. Then what will happen to those who have left him?'

"'Oh! if you think that,' I answered, laughing, 'you had better stay
where you are.'

"'Also, Macumazahn, the husbands of those women at my kraal have been
called u