The Induna's Wife Part 26

Outside the kraal the warriors were mustered, squatting behind their great war-shields, forming a huge half circle even as on the day when they hailed the fugitive King in his place of concealment, only now their number had nearly doubled. There they sat, rank upon rank, motionless. As the King's chair was lowered to the ground the whole of this dense ma.s.s of armed men threw their war-shields to the earth and fell prostrate upon them, and in the roar of the "_Bayete_" which thundered forth was a subdued growl of grief and wrath. Then they arose, and squatted crouching as before.

The eyes of the dying King kindled, as he swept his glance over this splendid army, and his form seemed to gather renewed life as he sat upright in his chair, his shield-bearer holding on high the great white shield behind him. Then he spoke:

"My children, I have called you here because I desire that the last sight my eyes shall rest on shall be the sight which they have always loved the most to behold, the sight of warriors under arms, of warriors of Zulu.

"What prouder name has the world ever known? Warriors of Zulu! And you--you, my children, have well deserved it and worthily won it. Not in you was it to place your necks beneath the foot of any base slave of the Amabuna, any cur who seeks to roar like the lion, any calf who would fain stamp with the rumble of the elephant, any changeling b.a.s.t.a.r.d who would drag the House of Senzangakona into the dust beneath the shoes of the Amabuna. Not in you was it to do this. But you have faithfully cleaved to your real King in shadow as in sunshine, and see now the result. Look around on your own ranks. Very soon now should we have gone forth, for not always was it my intention to sit down here and rest. Then we would have swept the traitors of our own race and the Amabuna into one common pit, and covered them up and stamped them in there for ever.

"I cannot talk many more words to you, my children. But if you have been loyal and faithful to me, your well-being has ever been my care as your father, your brave deeds have ever been my pride as your King. The nation has been divided, but I would have knit it together again. I would have restored it through you, faithful ones, to all its former greatness. But now I have to leave you. The base hand of evil wizardry has found me in my sleep, has struck me down in the night, and now I go into the Dark Unknown."

"_Ma-ye_!" moaned the warriors, their heads bowed in grief as Dingane paused. Then, gathering once more fresh strength, with an effort the dying King went on, and his voice rolled clear and strong like a call to battle:

"Lo! I see not the end. I know not who shall reunite this people, who shall deliver it from slavery and disgrace--extinction; for now I must leave it. My eyes are dim and the Dark Unknown is closing in around me.

Yet still my last gaze is upon that sight which is the grandest the world ever saw--the warriors of Zulu under arms. Farewell, warriors of Zulu!"

The voice ceased. The head drooped forward on the chest. The great form would have fallen p.r.o.ne from the chair but for those who stood by.

The King was dead.

Through the dense ranks there shivered forth one deep moan, and for long no man stirred. All sat in silence, mourning thus the loss of their father and King.

So died Dingane, the second of the mighty Kings of Zulu. Even as the great Tshaka had died the death of the spear at his hand, so died he the death of the spear, being struck in his sleep. But he died as he had lived, and his was the death of a true warrior-king--his last gaze upon the ranks of his a.s.sembled army--face to face with it--his last words to it, words of commendation and loving farewell--and who shall say, _Nkose_, that such was not a great and glorious death?

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

CONCLUSION.

We buried the King with great ceremony and the sacrifice of beasts; and the whole army sat around in deep silence, the silence of grief and mourning for that the nation was now left without a head; but it was a silence that was rendered more awesome by the death-rites of the _iza.n.u.si_ and the wailings of the women. Only for a short while, however, was the Great Great One to sit upon that seat, for he was taken up again in the dead of night and removed to a secret grave, known to but very few, as the custom is to keep secret the burial-places of kings.

Yes, with the pa.s.sing away of Dingane the army was as a body without a head. At such a time the thought would often be in my mind how Lalusini would have me seize the opportunity of putting myself in Dingane's place; for I too was of a royal tree--that of Dingiswayo, of the tribe of Umtetwa, whose place had been seized by Tshaka--yet not near enough was I to the stem of that tree, being but a branch. But I could clearly see that if opportunity there had been it was now no more. The loyalty of the army to the House of Senzangakona was too great; and now, being without a head, the warriors began to talk among themselves of the expediency of doing _konza_ to the other Great One of that House. So we consulted together--I and Silwane and some of the princ.i.p.al war-chiefs-- and in a short time we sent messengers to Mpande, who was the rightful King now, however he might owe his seat to the Amabuna. But with the army that had followed the Great One who was dead turned into his own army, Mpande might perhaps remedy even that.

Our messengers returned accompanied by others, including an induna of note, a.s.suring us of the royal favour. That decided us.

It was a great day, the day that saw the nation reunited once more.

Mpande sat in state, as our army filed in to his kraal near the Tugela-- for Nodwengu had not then been erected--singing songs of war and praises to the new King; and when as one man the whole number of those black ones threw down their weapons and shields and shouted aloud the "_Bayete_," bending low before him, the look upon the face of the King was one of gladness and great pride. Then he spoke to us. We had fought hard and valiantly for that Great One who was no more. We had been faithful to our rightful King, and had cleaved to him through his reverses. The stroke of some evil wizard had laid that Great One low in the dark hours of the night, but the House of Senzangakona was not dead yet, and we, quick to see this, had hastened to cry the "_Bayete_" to the head of that house, and the head of the Zulu nation. By reason of the fidelity we had shown he a.s.sured us of his favour, for upon such he felt he could rely.

Then the princ.i.p.al indunas of the returning army were called up, one by one, and "named," and thus were continued in the commands they had held up till now; some indeed being advanced to even greater honour--among them myself. And Mpande's word stood, for he ever regarded those who had adhered to Dingane with greater favour than those who had divided the nation with him. But that day was pa.s.sed in great rejoicing, and many cattle were slaughtered, and the feasting went on far into the night.

Towards its close I retired to my hut, thinking perhaps to find there my Swazi wives, who had been given me by that Great One who was gone. But they were not there, nor was any--and while I was thinking what had become of them the door was pushed softly open, and a voice said:

"Now, Untuswa, do I return. Am I welcome?"

_Whau, Nkose_! Then did I leap to my feet in amazement and joy. For the voice was that of Lalusini.

She had entered, and was standing upright within the hut.

"Welcome indeed, Lalusini," I replied. "Art thou then tired of thy sorcery?"

"I think that is so, Untuswa. There is much that is weariful in it. I would have made thee great, and myself with thee--then whispering--I would have reigned with thee Queen over this nation, but now I think I must live and die the wife of an induna only. Well, 'the stroke of Sopuza' has fallen, that is something."

I looked at her strangely in the firelight, for well I knew whose was the hand that directed "the stroke of Sopuza." She went on:

"Ah, ah, Untuswa! The greatness I had destined for thee can never be thine. Thou art too faithful. I would have had thee do it--yet my heart went forth to thee, thou great, brave, honest fighter, whose spear refused to strike the sleeping one--who chose to serve a King in his downfall rather than be served as King thyself. Thou wilt never be greater than an induna thyself, and I--well, I think I shall never be greater than an induna's wife."

And with these words she began to spread the mats in the hut, and heaped more wood upon the fire, and saw that things were in their places. Then she came and sat beside me.

Well, what mattered further greatness? I was great enough, being high in the councils of those who, under the King, ruled the nation, and for long I sat thus in a high place, and the favour of Mpande was always over me. But I had indeed pa.s.sed through strange things, even as old Gasitye had predicted I should when speaking from the ghost-cliff in the Valley of the Red Death. Yes, and even more was I destined to see, for soon the Amabuna were driven out in their turn, and the land they had seized from us was reft from them by the English. Howbeit on these we made no war, for they entered into a treaty with Mpande that the Zulu people should dwell on this side of the Tugela, and the English on the other; and this agreement they kept faithfully for a long s.p.a.ce of time until they began to fear Cetywayo, and then--but, _Nkose_, about that you know, and I have already told far too long a tale for one night.

Yet, it is strange that the sight of the horns of your oxen, branching through the mist, should have drawn forth not only the tale of the ghost-bull and the Valley of the Red Death, but a greater one still-- even that of the downfall and death of Dingane, and the dividing of the great Zulu nation; but so it ever is with the lives of men, one thing leads on to another. And now, _Nkose_, I think the time has come for sleep. Sleep well, _Nkose. Whau_! I know not whether you will return to this country again to hear tales of its old doings of battle and of blood, of warrior-kings and sorcerers, and beasts that have the life of the ghosts of magicians within them, for I am old now, and my time is at hand for a longer sleep than that which now awaits me underneath your waggon. _Nkose! Hlala gahle_!

But though old Untuswa could thus turn in, and with his blanket over his head could snooze away snugly beneath the shelter of the waggon, to me slumber refused to come. The graphic tale I had just heard, the tale of the first downfall of the Zulu power told in the dead of night on the very spot whereon had been contested the fierce and determined struggle which had in effect decided the second--for it was the British success at Kambula that rendered that at Ulundi a.s.sured--this tale, told, too, by a living actor in those stirring events of the bygone annals of a martial race, seemed to people all the surrounding waste; and looking forth, it needed no great tax on the imagination to conjure up the shades of slain warriors rising in hundreds from their common grave down yonder on the slope; and, shield and spear-armed, re-forming in wild and fantastic array of war.

And over and above such fanciful flights it was a tale to set one thinking--if one had never thought before--of the senselessness of deciding offhand the morality of this or that deed which helpeth to make history from one hard-and-fast point of view, and that point of view the British; or of stigmatising even a savage potentate as a treacherous and cruel monster, because he is not particular as to his methods when it becomes a question of preserving his nation's rights and his nation's greatness, what time such are threatened and invaded by Christians, whom subsequent events show to be the reverse of models of uprightness or fair dealing themselves. And it was even as old Untuswa had said: "You white people and ourselves see things differently, and I suppose it will always be so."

Yes, it was a fitting episode in the annals of a warrior nation, that tale of fierce wars, and intrigue, and st.u.r.dy loyalty, and even of a chivalry, not exactly describable by the term "rude"; most of all, too, was it a tale essentially human, showing how the same desires and motives enkindle the same actions and their results in the heart that beats beneath a brown skin as in that which beats beneath a white one.

And therein, perhaps, lay its greatest charm.