t the talk on this matter was ended,
then added--

"Macumazahn, you are my prisoner for a while, but give me your
word that you will not try to escape and you may go where you
will within an hour's ride of Ulundi. I would pay you well to
stop here with me, but this I know you would never do should
there be trouble between us and your people. Therefore I promise
you that if war breaks out I will send you safely to Natal, or
perhaps sooner, as my messenger, whence doubtless you will return
to fight against me. Know that I have given orders that every
other white man or woman who is found in Zululand shall be killed
as a spy. Even John Dunn has fled or is flying, or so I hear,
John Dunn who has fed out of my hand and grown rich on my gifts.
You yourself would have been killed as you came from Swazi-Land
in your cart, had not command been sent to those chiefs through
whose lands you passed that neither they nor their people were so
much as to look at you."

Now for one intense moment I thought, as hard as ever I had done
in my life. It was evident--unless he dealing very cunningly
with me, which I did not believe--that Cetewayo knew nothing of
Anscombe and Heda, but thought that I had come into Zululand
alone. Should I or should I not tell him and beg his protection
for them? If I did so he might refuse or be unable to give it to
them far away in the midst of a savage population aflame with the
lust of war. As the incident of the morning showed, it was as
much as he could do to protect myself, although the Zulus knew me
for their friend. On the other hand no one who dwelt under
Zikali's blanket, to use the Kaffir idiom, would be touched,
because he was looked on as half divine and therefore everything
under it down to the rat in his thatch was sacred. Now Zikali by
implication and Nombe with emphasis, had promised to safeguard
these two. Surely, therefore, they would run less risk in the
Black Kloof than here at Ulundi, if ever they got so far.

All this went through my brain in an instant, with the result
that I made up my mind to say nothing. As the issue proved, this
was a terrible mistake, but who can always judge rightly? Had I
spoken out it seems to me probable that Cetewayo would have
granted my prayer and ordered that these two should be escorted
out of Zululand before hostilities began, although of course they
might have been murdered on the way. Also, for a reason that
will become evident later,