Spare
us, Spirit who canst summon our dead sins from the grave of time, and make
them walk alive before us."
"Nay, nay," she answered, mockingly, "surely I am but a woman, daughter of
a Teacher who lives yonder over the Tugela, a white maiden who eats and
sleeps and drinks as other maidens do. Take notice, King, and you his
captains, that I am no spirit, nothing but a woman who chances to bear a
high name, and to have some wisdom. Only," she added with meaning, "if any
harm should come to me, if I should die, then I think that I should become
a spirit, a terrible spirit, and that ill would it go with that people
against whom my blood was laid."
"Oh!" said the King, who still shook with fear, "we know, we know. Mock us
not, I pray. Thou art the Spirit who hast chosen to wear the robe of
woman, as flame hides itself in flint, and woe be to the hand that strikes
the fire from this stone. White One, give us now that wisdom whereof thou
speakest. Shall I fall upon the Boers or shall I let them be?"
Rachel looked upwards, studying the stars.
"She takes counsel with the Heavens, she who is their daughter," muttered
one of the indunas in a low voice.
As he spoke it chanced that a bright meteor travelling from the south-west
swept across the sky to burst and vanish over the kraal of Umgugundhlovo.
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