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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.
In this formation we advanced a few hundred yards to our left, evidently with the object of interposing ourselves between the routed impi and the pursuing Usutu, or, if the latter should elect to go round us, with that of threatening their flank. Cetewayo's generals did not leave us long in doubt as to what they would do.
Up went the cry of: "Kill, Amawombe, kill!" answered by another cry of: "Toss, Usutu, toss!" After that, what happened? Heaven knows alone or at least I do not. But in later years Mr.
Thereon the comrades of the slain man, raising a shout of "Usutu," which became the war-cry of Cetewayo's party, fell upon the others, and a dreadful combat ensued. Fortunately the soldiers were only armed with sticks, or the slaughter would have been very great; but as it was, after an indecisive engagement, about fifty men were killed and many more injured.
A heavy splash, and that was the end of Umbelazi the Fallen Umbelazi, about whom Mameena had cast her net. A sad story in truth. Although it happened so many years ago I weep as I write it I weep as Umbelazi wept. 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.
Indeed, he appears to have said publicly that whoever lifted a spear against me, his friend and guest, lifted it against him, and would be the cause of a new war. So the Usutu left me alone, perhaps because they were satisfied with fighting for a while, and thought it wisest to be content with what they had won.
Down the slope they went, leaving the ground in front of them covered with black spots which we knew to be dead or wounded men. "Why does not the Elephant charge home?" said Maputa in a perplexed voice. "The Usutu bull is on his back! Why does he not trample him?" "Because he is afraid, I suppose," I answered, and went on watching. There was plenty to see, as it happened.
As for me, I sat down upon a stone and groaned, for now I understood everything. Presently the Usutu raised fierce, triumphant shouts, and once again their impi, swelled with Saduko's power, began to advance up the slope. Umbelazi, and those of the Isigqosa party who clung to him now, I should judge, not more than eight thousand men never stayed to wait the onslaught. They broke!
Have I not heard how you led the Tulwana against the Usutu and stamped flat three of Cetywayo's regiments in the days of Panda, although, alas! because of an oath of mine I lifted no steel in that battle, I who will have nothing to do with those that spring from the blood of Senzangacona perhaps because I smell too strongly of it, Macumazahn.
Going to the head of the Nodwengu kraal, where Panda was sitting in state with his Council, I found the whole great space in front of him crowded with a dense concourse of fierce-faced partisans, those who favoured Cetewayo the Usutu sitting on the right, and those who favoured Umbelazi the Isigqosa sitting on the left.
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