eats of it, my father, will
see the sun's shadow move no more, and will never look upon the stars
again. But I was minded to know the assegai or the kerrie; nor would I
perish more slowly beneath the knives of the tormentors, nor be parched
by the pangs of thirst, or wander eyeless to my end. Therefore it was
that, since I had sat in the doom ring looking hour after hour into the
face of death, I had borne this medicine with me by night and by day.
Surely now was the time to use it.

So I thought as I sat through the watches of the night, ay! and drew out
the bitter drug and laid it on my tongue. But as I did so I remembered
my daughter Nada, who was left to me, though she sojourned in a far
country, and my wife Macropha and my sister Baleka, who still lived, so
said the soldiers, though how it came about that the king had not killed
her I did not know then. Also another thought was born in my heart.
While life remained to me, I might be revenged upon him who had wrought
me this woe; but can the dead strike? Alas! the dead are strengthless,
and if they still have hearts to suffer, they have no hands to give back
blow for blow. Nay, I would live on. Time to die when death could no
more be put away. Time to die when the voice of Chaka spoke my doom.
Death chooses for himself and answers no questions; he is a guest to
whom none need open the door of his hut, for when he wills he can pass
through the thatch like air. Not yet would I taste of that medicine of
mine.

So I lived on, my father, and the soldiers led me back to the kraal of
Chaka. Now when we came to the kraal it was night, for the sun had sunk
as we passed through the gates. Still, as he had been commanded, the
captain of those who watched me went in before the king and told him
that I lay without in bonds. And the king said, "Let him be brought
before me, who was my physician, that I may tell him how I have doctored
those of his house."

So they took me and led me to the royal house, and pushed me through the
doorway of the great hut.

Now a fire burned in the hut, for the night was cold, and Chaka sat on
the further side of the fire, looking towards the opening of the hut,
and the smoke from the fire wreathed him round, and its light shone upon
his face and flickered in his terrible eyes.

At the door of the hut certain councillors seized me by the arms and
dragged me towards the fire. But I broke from them, and prostrating
myself, for my arms were free