of the men
who had gone first. Then, forming in a double line, each man linked
his arms round the middle of his comrade in front, as Kaffir girls
link themselves in a dance, and very slowly this human chain began to
struggle forward along the back of the ridge. At times, indeed, the
weight of the stream was almost too much for them, and swept some of
them off into the deep water which ran on either side, but the strong
rope of human muscles held, and they were dragged back again. Now they
were between the lip of the first walls, and the Umpondwana soldiers
hurled spears at them from the banks, killing many. But if a man was
slain, or even badly wounded, his companions who held him let go, and,
if needful, thrust him into the water, who could no longer serve the
king. Then he gripped the soldier who stood in front of the lost one,
and the chain dragged on.

"Oh! men of the Umpondwana," cried Sihamba, "had you but half the heart
of these, who are brave, we need fear nothing from Dingaan," and the
Zulus in the stream who heard her called in answer:--

"You are right, little chieftainess, we are brave."

Slowly the black snake-like line pressed forward through the white foam,
never heeding the storm of spears that slew continually, till the point
of it was well within the third line of walls. Then the captain, who by
some chance had escaped, called an order to those behind him, and the
head of the double line leapt off the ridge of rock into deep water, and
swimming with their feet, but still gripping with their hands, suffered
themselves to be swung round by the current towards the bank, twenty
yards away. Here some rocks jutted out, and these, after a great
struggle, they were able to grasp and hold.

Then followed what Suzanne, who was watching from above, afterwards
declared to be the strangest sight she had ever seen, for these men, who
swung to and fro in the current, anchored, as it were, to the ridge and
the bank, made of their living bodies a bridge for their fellows. Yes,
their companions ran and crawled over them, springing from shoulder to
shoulder, and driving their heads beneath the water with the push of
their clinging feet. Half-drowned and almost torn in two as they were,
still they held on till enough men were safe on shore to finish the
fray. For when the Umpondwana saw that the Zulus had won the bank they
did not stay to kill them while they landed, as might easily have been
done; no, dragging Siham