me.

"'Macumazahn,' he said, looking up at me earnestly, for I was mounted,
and he walked beside my horse, 'there is to be war. Cetewayo will not
consent to the demands of the great White Chief from the Cape,'--he
meant Sir Bartle Frere--'he will fight with the English; only he will
let them begin the fighting. He will draw them on into Zululand and then
overwhelm them with his impis and stamp them flat, and eat them up; and
I, who love the English, am very sorry. Yes, it makes my heart bleed.
If it were the Boers now, I should be glad, for we Zulus hate the Boers;
but the English we do not hate; even Cetewayo likes them; still, he will
eat them up if they attack him.'

"'Indeed,' I answered; and then as in duty bound I proceeded to get what
I could out of him, and that was not a little. Of course, however, I did
not swallow it all, since that I suspected that Magepa was feeding me
with news that he had been ordered to disseminate.

"Presently we came to the mouth of the kloof in which the kraal stood,
and here, for greater convenience of conversation, we halted, for I
thought it as well that we should not be seen in close talk on the open
plain beyond. The path here, I should add, ran past a clump of green
bushes; I remember they bore a white flower that smelt sweet, and were
backed by some tall grass, elephant-grass I think it was, among which
grew mimosa trees.

"'Magepa,' I said, 'if in truth there is to be fighting, why don't you
move over the river one night with your people and cattle, and get into
Natal?'