tives, striving to gain that end, for the mountain was only to be
gained by two sides. We did not shout now. With heads bent and eyes
glowing, each warrior grasping his spear in readiness, we swept across
that level summit. Wildly those doomed ones fled--fled for the only
side still open; but here they rushed upon the spears of Kalipe, and
were driven back, so that they were now hemmed in with blades. _Au_!
then we began to kill! We slew and slew until we could hardly raise our
arms; but what I was keenly on the alert for was the chief, Tauane; for
Umzilikazi had specially ordered that, if possible, this man should be
taken alive.

Wearied with killing, I shouted to the groups of screaming Bakoni still
alive, both men and women, who now lay upon the ground, begging hard for
their lives:

"Where is Tauane? Where is the Chief of the Blue Cattle?"

They hesitate to reply. Immediately our assegais set to work again.
Then some of the women screamed out:

"Yonder he is, Lion. There, among those."

I followed their glance. A group of men, terror-stricken, sat huddled
together, their looks wildly imploring that mercy they knew it would be
useless to ask. Already our warriors were bounding upon them with
uplifted spears. But I ran forward and ordered them to forbear.

"Greeting, Chief of the Blue Cattle!" I cried aloud in a great mocking
voice. "Greeting, young lion, lord of thousands and thousands of
spears. What was my `word' but this day? That the next time the Chief
of the Bakoni saw my face it would be in the forefront of the
destroyers; and it is so. But how do I again behold the chief of so
many spears and shields? Is it armed and fighting to the death? Not
so. It is crouching low, and weeping even as these miserable women!"

"_Xi_!" cried the warriors in contemptuous disgust, the sharp click
sounding in chorus like the cracking of sticks. "_Bayete, Nkulu
'nkulu_!" they mocked. "We _konza_ to thee, young lion, who roars
louder than the Lion of the Amandebeli."

Thus they jeered the fallen chief, and amid their shouts of laughter I
gave orders that he should be tied with his right hand to his left
ankle, so that he could walk only with great difficulty. This I did,
_Nkose_, because he was contemptible as a pitiful coward. Had he been a
brave man, although he was doomed, I would have spared him insult; but
for a chief, the chief of a nation, to crouch among the women and whine
for mercy--_au_