through which we passed, perhaps because they knew me to be the sole
survivor of all the white men who had gone up to visit the king. They
would come down in crowds from the kraals and stare at me almost with
awe, as though I were a spirit and not a man. Only, not one of them
would say anything to me, probably because they had been forbidden to do
so. Indeed, if I spoke to any of them, invariably they turned and walked
or ran out of hearing.

It was on the evening of the fourth day that Kambula and his soldiers
received some news which seemed to excite them a great deal. A messenger
in a state of exhaustion, who had an injury to the fleshy part of his
left arm, which looked to me as though it had been caused by a bullet,
appeared out of the bush and said something of which, by straining
my ears, I caught two words--"Great slaughter." Then Kambula laid his
fingers on his lips as a signal for silence and led the man away, nor
did I see or hear any more of him. Afterwards I asked Kambula who had
suffered this great slaughter, whereon he stared at me innocently and
replied that he did not know of what I was speaking.

"What is the use of lying to me, Kambula, seeing that I shall find out
the truth before long?"

"Then, Macumazahn, wait till you do find it out, and may it please you,"
he replied, and went off to speak with his people at a distance.

All that night I heard them talking off and on--I, who lay awake
plunged into new miseries. I was sure that some other dreadful thing had
happened. Probably Dingaan's armies had destroyed all the Boers, and, if
so, oh! what had become of Marie? Was she dead, or had she perhaps been
taken prisoner, as Dingaan had told me would be done for his own vile
purposes? For aught I knew she might now be travelling under escort to
Umgungundhlovu, as I was travelling to Natal.

The morning came at last, and that day, about noon, we reached a ford
of the Tugela which luckily was quite passable. Here Kambula bade me
farewell, saying that his mission was finished. Also he delivered to me
a message that I was to give from Dingaan to the English in Natal. It
was to this effect: That he, Dingaan, had killed the Boers who came to
visit him because he found out that they were traitors to their chief,
and therefore not worthy to live. But that he loved the Sons of George,
who were true-hearted people, and therefore had nothing to fear from
him. Indeed, he begged them to come and see him at his G