his people. Still, there
are others."

"That is not my mind, thou who art from nowhere," said Umzilikazi.
"Thou art indeed fair and goodly enough for a queen--and a queen thou
shalt be. Thou shalt be at the head of the _isigodhlo_, and the delight
of a King."

Now my eyes were fixed upon the face of Lalusini; but over it came no
change.

"That cannot be, Great Great One!" she answered.

"Cannot be? Ha!" cried Umzilikazi, gazing at her in displeasure and
amazement. "Are, then, the wishes of a King to be uttered twice?"

"Thou art all-powerful, O Black Elephant," she said. "The elephant may
rend down forest-trees and loosen rocks with his might. Yet even he
cannot walk against a broad river in flood. There is a law which is
greater than even the wishes of the mightiest of kings."

"What meanest thou, my sister?" said Umzilikazi, in a low but terrible
voice.

"Thou doest well to call me thus, son of Matyobane; for within me runs
the blood of Matyobane."

"Ha!"

So great was his astonishment that for a space, save that one amazed
gasp, no word could the King utter. Now stood revealed the meaning of
that saying of hers; for, _Nkose_, so strict is this custom among us
Amazulu, that no man may take to wife any girl within whose veins runs a
drop of his own blood, or, indeed, as to whom exists the barest
suspicion that such may be the case. Wherefore, in declaring herself to
be of the blood of Umzilikazi's father, Lalusini knew that even the King
himself dare not take her to wife; nor, indeed, would he desire to, once
convinced of the truth of her words.

"Is this indeed so?" he said at last, frowning suspiciously, for a king
likes not to be balked in the desire of his heart, be the reason never
so good.

"Say, then, who was thy father?"

"First look at me; Great Great One. Are we not of a royal tree, we in
whom runs the same blood?"

Now the King started slightly, and I, too, marking that royal stamp
which rested upon Lalusini, saw for the first time a certain degree of
likeness between them.

"Of my father I cannot speak," she went on. "My mother was Laliwa,
sister of Matyobane."

"_Au_!"

"A wonder!" broke from myself and the King at once. For she had named
one of the inferior wives of Tshaka the Terrible. Well might we cry out
in amazement. This strange beautiful woman, this sorceress of the
Bakoni, whose witcheries had inspired both of us with love for her, was
of the royal house of Se