vengeance for one Mopo, and I knew nothing till too late;
surely, I thought, the man spoke of some other Mopo. For thus, my
father, does destiny make fools of us men. We think that we can shape
our fate, but it is fate that shapes us, and nothing befalls except fate
will it. All things are a great pattern, my father, drawn by the hand of
the Umkulunkulu upon the cup whence he drinks the water of his wisdom;
and our lives, and what we do, and what we do not do, are but a little
bit of the pattern, which is so big that only the eyes of Him who is
above, the Umkulunkulu, can see it all. Even Chaka, the slayer of men,
and all those he slew, are but as a tiny grain of dust in the greatness
of that pattern. How, then, can we be wise, my father, who are but the
tools of wisdom? how can be build who are but pebbles in a wall? how can
we give life who are babes in the womb of fate? or how can we slay who
are but spears in the hands of the slayer?

This came about, my father. Matters were made straight in the land after
the death of Chaka. At first people said that Masilo, the stranger, had
stabbed the king; then it was known that Mopo, the wise man, the doctor
and the body-servant of the king, had slain the king, and that the
two great bulls, his brothers Umhlangana and Dingaan, children of
Senzangacona, had also lifted spears against him. But he was dead, and
earth and heaven had not come together, so what did it matter? Moreover,
the two new kings promised to deal gently with the people, and to
lighten the heavy yoke of Chaka, and men in a bad case are always ready
to home for a better. So it came about that the only enemies the
princes found were each other and Engwade, the son of Unandi, Chaka's
half-brother. But I, Mopo, who was now the first man in the land after
the kings, ceasing to be a doctor and becoming a general, went up
against Engwade with the regiment of the Bees and the regiment of the
Slayers and smote him in his kraals. It was a hard fight, but in the end
I destroyed him and all his people: Engwade killed eight men with his
own hand before I slew him. Then I came back to the kraal with the few
that were left alive of the two regiments.

After that the two kings quarrelled more and more, and I weighed them
both in my balance, for I would know which was the most favourable to
me. In the end I found that both feared me, but that Umhlangana would
certainly put me to death if he gained the upper hand, whereas this