nd consulted, then slowly
and cautiously advanced again.

We had been nearly a quarter of an hour at the work now, and
it was almost three feet high.

Then I woke Umslopogaas. The great man rose, stretched himself,
and swung Inkosi-kaas round his head.

'It is well,' he said. 'I feel as a young man once more. My
strength has come back to me, ay, even as a lamp flares up before
it dies. Fear not, I shall fight a good fight; the wine and
the sleep have put a new heart into me.

'Macumazahn, I have dreamed a dream. I dreamed that thou and
I stood together on a star, and looked down on the world, and
thou wast as a spirit, Macumazahn, for light flamed through thy
flesh, but I could not see what was the fashion of mine own face.
The hour has come for us, old hunter. So be it: we have had
our time, but I would that in it I had seen some more such fights
as yesterday's.

'Let them bury me after the fashion of my people, Macumazahn,
and set my eyes towards Zululand;' and he took my hand and shook it,
and then turned to face the advancing foe.

Just then, to my astonishment, the Zu-Vendi officer Kara clambered
over our improvised wall in his quiet, determined sort of way,
and took his stand by the Zulu, unsheathing his sword as he did
so.

'What, comest thou too?' laughed out the old warrior. 'Welcome
-- a welcome to thee, brave heart! Ow! for the man who can die
like a man; ow! for the death grip and the ringing of steel.
Ow! we are ready. We wet our beaks like eagles, our spears
flash in the sun; we shake our assegais, and are hungry to fight.
Who comes to give greeting to the Chieftainess [Inkosi-kaas]?
Who would taste her kiss, whereof the fruit is death? I, the
Woodpecker, I, the Slaughterer, I the Swiftfooted! I, Umslopogaas,
of the tribe of the Maquilisini, of the people of Amazulu, a
captain of the regiment of the Nkomabakosi: I, Umslopogaas, the
son of Indabazimbi, the son of Arpi the son of Mosilikaatze,
I of the royal blood of T'Chaka, I of the King's House, I the
Ringed Man, I the Induna, I call to them as a buck calls, I challenge
them, I await them. Ow! it is thou, it is thou!'

As he spake, or rather chanted, his wild war-song, the armed
men, among whom in the growing light I recognized both Nasta
and Agon, came streaming up the stair with a rush, and one big
fellow, armed with a heavy spear, dashed up the ten semicircular
steps ahead of his comrades and struck at the great Zulu with
the