ne. Am
I then mad that I should suffer them to live? Woman, thou hast fallen
into thine own trap. Take them away!"

Now Zinita tasted of the cup which she had brewed for other lips, and
grew distraught in her misery, and wrung her hands, crying that she
repented her of the evil and would warn Umslopogaas and the Lily of that
which awaited them. And she turned to run towards the gates. But the
king laughed and nodded, and they brought her back, and presently she
was dead also.

Thus, then, my father, prospered the wickedness of Zinita, the head wife
of Umslopogaas, my fosterling.

Now these were the last slayings that were wrought at the kraal
Umgugundhlovu, for just as Dingaan had made an end of them and once more
grew weary, he lifted his eyes and saw the hillsides black with men, who
by their dress were of his own impi--men whom he had sent out against
the Boers.

And yet where was the proud array, where the plumes and shields, where
the song of victory? Here, indeed, were soldiers, but they walked in
groups like women and hung their heads like chidden children.

Then he learned the truth. The impi had been defeated by the banks of
the Income; thousands had perished at the laager, mowed down by the guns
of the Boers, thousands more had been drowned in the Income, till the
waters were red and the bodies of the slain pushed each other under, and
those who still lived walked upon them.

Dingaan heard, and was seized with fear, for it was said that the
Amaboona followed fast on the track of the conquered.

That day he fled to the bush on the Black Umfolozi river, and that night
the sky was crimson with the burning of the kraal Umgugundhlovu, where
the Elephant should trumpet no more, and the vultures were scared from
the Hill of Slaughter by the roaring of the flames.

* * * * *

Galazi sat on the lap of the stone Witch, gazing towards the wide plains
below, that were yet white with the moon, though the night grew towards
the morning. Greysnout whined at his side, and Deathgrip thrust his
muzzle into his hand; but Galazi took no heed, for he was brooding on
the fall of Umslopogaas from the man that he had been to the level of a
woman's slave, and on the breaking up of the People of the Axe, because
of the coming of Nada. For all the women and the children were gone to
this Feast of Women, and would not return for long, and it seemed to
Galazi that many of the men had slipped away also, as though they smelt
som