th assegai wounds. They must have fallen in the retreat and been
assegaied at once, as I saw no fighting when I looked round."

The court-martial condemned Lieutenant Carey, and he was sent home
under arrest. But eventually, owing to the intervention of the
bereaved Empress, and many sympathetic friends, the unfortunate
officer was released. The news of the calamity was received with
profound grief throughout the country. Some mourned the death of a
Prince, some sighed over the extinction of Napoleonic hopes,
officers regretted the loss of a promising comrade, and mothers
spent tears of sympathy for the great lady, Empress and mother, who
had thus been bereft of her only child.

THE VICTORY

To return to the progress of the war. On the 26th of June the
long-expected junction of the columns was on the eve of being
effected. Cetchwayo was pretending to make overtures for peace,
though at the same time his people were endeavouring to enter into
alliance with rebellious Boers. He even sent the sword of the Prince
Imperial as a peace-offering. On the envelope, however, his
amanuensis, one Cornelius Vjin (a Dutchman), pencilled the fact that
the king had 20,000 men with him. The reply of Lord Chelmsford was
as follows:----

"If the Induna, Mundula, brings with him the 1000 rifles taken at
Isandlwana, I will not insist on 1000 men coming in to lay down
their arms, if the Zulus are afraid to come. He must bring the two
guns and the remainder of the cattle. I will then be willing to
negotiate. As he has caused me to advance by the great delay he has
made, I must now go to the Umvolosi to enable my men to drink. I
will consent, pending negotiations, to halt on the further bank of
the river, and will not burn any kraals until the 3rd of July,
provided no opposition is made to my advance to the position on the
Umvolosi, by which day, the 3rd of July, at noon, the conditions
must be complied with. If my force is fired on, I shall consider
negotiations are at an end, and to avoid any chance of this, it is
best that Mundula come to my camp at daybreak or to-night, and that
the Zulus should withdraw from the neighbourhood of the river to
Ulundi. I cannot stop the general in command of the coast army until
these conditions are complied with."

Of course nothing was seen of Mundula, and preparations were made
for the reception of the enemy. Newdigate and Wood laagered their
waggons and prepared for the arrival of an impi of some