able to defy the world.
Yet we had ascended it so easily!

"Ha, Chief of the Blue Cattle!" I said mockingly. "Behold thy
fortress! Behold the lion who roars louder than thee! Thou art already
dead, thou who wouldst have done violence to the ambassadors of the
Great King!"

"Perhaps not," he muttered, more to himself than to me. "Perhaps not.
It may be that I can tell the King that which is worth my life."

Now, _Nkose_, my heart stood still within me, for these were exactly the
words of Maroane the slave. To how many was known the existence of
Lalusini--the secret of her hiding-place? Had I dared, I would have
slain Tauane with my own hand, but this was impossible. He was the
King's prisoner. Walking in the midst of the other captives, no colour
had I for slaying him, and had I done so I should have drawn down upon
myself the darkest suspicion. True, there was no direct proof, as yet,
that I was aware of the secret, but the King's distrust would be aroused
and my undoing would then be a certainty. And, over and above all this,
the thought that Lalusini might be reft from me filled my mind with a
fierce and savage dread. I felt capable of slaying the King himself
rather than that should befall.

Then the whole army mustered in two immense half-circles, and the tufted
shields and waving plumes, and the quiver of assegai-hafts made a noise
like that of a mighty wind shaking a forest, and amid the thunder of the
war-song, the King appeared, preceded by several _izimbonga_. These
were roaring like lions, trumpeting like elephants, bellowing like
bulls, wriggling like snakes, each ornamented with the skin, or horns,
or teeth of the animal he represented and which constituted the King's
titles.

Umzilikazi was arrayed in a war-dress of white ostrich-feathers and
flowing cow-hair. The great white shield was held over him by his
shield-bearer, but he himself carried a shield made of the skin of a
lion, and a broad-bladed dark-handled spear similar to the one which he
had given to me. It was not often the King appeared in all the
war-adornments of a fighting leader, and now that he did the mad delight
of the warriors knew no bounds.

"Elephant who bears the world!" they roared. "Divider of the sun!
Black Serpent of Night! Black Bull, whose horns bear fire! Lion whose
roar causeth the stars to fall!" were some of the phrases of _bonga_
which arose; and, indeed, the King himself could hardly command silenc