ve now. You would be seen, and it would turn the fate
of the battle. It is not half won yet. The soldiers would think
you were making a bolt of it. Quick now.'

In a moment he was down, and at my bidding Umslopogaas sprang
into the empty saddle.

'Now farewell,' I said. 'Send a thousand horsemen with remounts
after us in an hour if possible. Stay, despatch a general to
the left wing to take over the command and explain my absence.'

'You will do your best to save her, Quatermain?' he said in a
broken voice.

'Ay, that I will. Go on; you are being left behind.'

He cast one glance at us, and accompanied by his staff galloped
off to join the advance, which by this time was fording the little
brook that now ran red with the blood of the fallen.

As for Umslopogaas and myself, we left that dreadful field as
arrows leave a bow, and in a few minutes had passed right out
of the sight of slaughter, the smell of blood, and the turmoil
and shouting, which only came to our ears as a faint, far-off
roaring like the sound of distant breakers.

CHAPTER XXI
AWAY! AWAY!

At the top of the rise we halted for a second to breathe our
horses; and, turning, glanced at the battle beneath us, which,
illumined as it was by the fierce rays of the sinking sun staining
the whole scene red, looked from where we were more like some
wild titanic picture than an actual hand-to-hand combat. The
distinguishing scenic effect from that distance was the countless
distinct flashes of light reflected from the swords and spears,
otherwise the panorama was not so grand as might have been expected.
The great green lap of sward in which the struggle was being
fought out, the bold round outline of the hills behind, and the
wide sweep of the plain beyond, seemed to dwarf it; and what
was tremendous enough when one was in it, grew insignificant
when viewed from the distance. But is it not thus with all the
affairs and doings of our race about which we blow the loud trumpet
and make such a fuss and worry? How utterly antlike, and morally
and physically insignificant, must they seem to the calm eyes
that watch them from the arching depths above!

'We win the day, Macumazahn,' said old Umslopogaas, taking in
the whole situation with a glance of his practised eye. 'Look,
the Lady of the Night's forces give on every side, there is no
stiffness left in them, they bend like hot iron, they are fighting
with but half a heart. But alas!