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Now these were the last slayings that were wrought at the kraal Umgugundhlovu, for just as Dingaan had made an end of them and once more grew weary, he lifted his eyes and saw the hillsides black with men, who by their dress were of his own impi men whom he had sent out against the Boers. And yet where was the proud array, where the plumes and shields, where the song of victory?
Amid such scenes as these they passed through the town of Umgugundhlovu into which Rachel had been brought in order that the people might see that their Inkosazana had returned, and on to that kraal upon the hill, where she had spent all those weary weeks until Richard came.
Now it chanced that on a certain morning I, Mopo, sat in the kraal Umgugundhlovu in attendance on Dingaan. For still I waited on the king, though he had spoken no word to me, good or bad, since the yesterday, when I foretold to him that in the blood of the white men whom he had betrayed grew the flower of his own death.
"Go," he said hoarsely to Richard, "go, thou wizard, north or south or east or west, if only thou wilt take that Spirit with thee, for she bodes evil to my land." So Richard, who had seen nothing, marched away from the kraal Umgugundhlovu, and once more set his face towards the north, the north that drew him as it draws the needle of a compass.
But the dwarf Eddo only smiled again and waved his hand. "Look once more, King," he said in his low, hissing voice, and Dingaan looked. Now his face darkened. "I see fire," he said. "Yes, in this kraal. Umgugundhlovu burns, my royal House burns, and yonder come the white men riding upon horses. Oh! they are gone." Eddo waved his hand, saying: "Look again and tell us what thou seest, King."
Dingaan heard, and was seized with fear, for it was said that the Amaboona followed fast on the track of the conquered. That day he fled to the bush on the Black Umfolozi river, and that night the sky was crimson with the burning of the kraal Umgugundhlovu, where the Elephant should trumpet no more, and the vultures were scared from the Hill of Slaughter by the roaring of the flames.
At the least, it was she who turned her head away, and the Lily passed on smiling, and greeted Umslopogaas with a little nod. "Hail, Nada!" said the Slaughterer. Then he turned to his headmen and spoke: "This is she whom we went to the caves of the Halakazi to seek for Dingaan. Ou! the story is known now; one told it up at the kraal Umgugundhlovu who shall tell it no more.
Thus speaks Mopo the inyanga, Mopo the doctor, who never yet prophesied that which should not be." Then we marched from the kraal Umgugundhlovu, and when next I saw that kraal it was to burn all of it which Dingaan had left unburnt, and when next I saw Dingaan ah! that is to be told of, my father.
Now after this night I began my work, for I established spies at the kraal of Dingaan, and from them I learned all that passed with the king. At first he gave orders that an impi should be summoned to eat up the People of the Axe, but afterwards came tidings that the Boers, to the number of five hundred mounted men, were marching on the kraal Umgugundhlovu.
"One thing I know: I had rather see Nada at my gates to-night than hear all the chiefs in the land crying 'Hail, O King!" "You will live to think otherwise, Umslopogaas; and now spies must be set at the kraal Umgugundhlovu to give us warning of the mind of the king, lest he should send an impi suddenly to eat you up.
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