throats of thousands of his
warriors--yet the King, in his heart of hearts, was tired of the lot.

He looked around upon his sheep and goats--for the sacred enclosure
included the kraal which contained his private and particular flock--and
he loved them, for he was by nature a born farmer, called by accident,
and even then, reluctantly, to rule this nation of fierce and turbulent
fighters. He looked upon the flocks surrounding him and wondered how
much longer they would be his--how much longer anything would be his--
for war was not merely in the air but was actually at his gates; war
with the whites, with whom he had ever striven to live on friendly and
peaceful terms. But, as had long been foreseen, his people had forced
his hand at last.

Unwillingly he had bowed to the inevitable, he the despot, he, before
whose frown those ferocious and bloodthirsty human beasts trembled, he
the dark-skinned savage, whose word was law, whose ire conveyed terror
over a region as wide-spreading and vast as that under the sway of any
one of the greater Powers in Europe. But as long as the nation was a
nation and he was alive, he intended to remain its King, however
reluctant he had been to assume the supreme reins of government, and
consistently with this it had been out of his power to check the
aggressive ebullitions of his fiery adherents. And now war was within
the land, and hourly, runners were bringing in tidings of the advance--
straight, fell, unswerving of purpose--of a strong and compact
expedition of whites--their goal his capital.

Yes, day by day these were drawing nearer. The intelligence brought by
innumerable spies and runners was unvarying. The approaching force in
numbers was such that a couple of his best regiments should be able to
eat it up at a mouthful. But it was splendidly armed, and its
organisation and discipline were perfect. Its leaders seemed to take no
risks, and at the smallest alarm all those waggons could be turned into
a complete and defensive fort almost as quickly as a man might clap his
hands twice. And then, from each corner, from every face of this
unscaleable wall, peeped forth a small, insignificant thing, a little
shining tube that could be placed on the back of a horse--yet this
contemptible-looking toy could rain down bullets into the ranks of his
warriors at a rate which would leave none to return to him with the
tale. Nay more, even the cover of rocks and bushes would not hel