After this I think that some of the Usutu came up, for it seemed to me
that I heard Saduko say: "Touch not Macumazahn or his servant. They are my prisoners. He who
harms them dies, with all his House."
So they put me, fainting, on my horse, and Scowl they carried away upon
a shield.
When I came to I found myself in a little cave, or rather beneath some
overhanging rocks, at the side of a kopje, and with me Scowl, who had
recovered from his fit, but seemed in a very bewildered condition.
Indeed, neither then nor afterwards did he remember anything of the
death of Umbelazi, nor did I ever tell him that tale. Like many others,
he thought that the Prince had been drowned in trying to swim the
Tugela.
"Are they going to kill us?" I asked of him, since, from the triumphant
shouting without, I knew that we must be in the midst of the victorious
Usutu.
"I don't know, Baas," he answered. "I hope not; after we have gone
through so much it would be a pity. Better to have died at the beginning
of the battle."
I nodded my head in assent, and just at that moment a Zulu, who had very
evidently been fighting, entered the place carrying a dish of toasted
lumps of beef and a gourd of water.
"Cetewayo sends you these, Macumazahn," he said, "and is sorry that
there is no milk or beer. When you have eaten a guard waits without to
escort you to him." And he went.
"Well," I said to Scowl, "if they were going to kill us, they would
scarcely take the trouble to feed us first. So let us keep up our hearts
and eat."
"Who knows?" answered poor Scowl, as he crammed a lump of beef into
his big mouth. "Still, it is better to die on a full than on an empty
stomach."
So we ate and drank, and, as we were suffering more from exhaustion than
from our hurts, which were not really serious, our strength came back
to us. As we finished the last lump of meat, which, although it had been
only half cooked upon the point of an assegai, tasted very good, the
Zulu put his head into the mouth of the shelter and asked if we were
ready. I nodded, and, supporting each other, Scowl and I limped from the
place. Outside were about fifty soldiers, who greeted us with a shout
that, although it was mixed with laughter at our pitiable appearance,
struck me as not altogether unfriendly. Amongst these men was my horse,
which stood with its head hanging down, looking very depressed. I was
helped on to its back, and, Scowl clinging to the stirrup leather, we
were led a distance of about a quarter of a mile to Cetewayo.