A messenger was despatched to Ramah, but after ten days he
returned saying that the Tugela was in flood, and he could not cross it.
She sent him out again, and a week later was told that he had been killed
by a lion on his journey. Then another messenger was chosen, but what
became of him she never knew.
It was about this time that Rachel learned that Ishmael, having recovered
from his sickness, had escaped from Umgugundhlovo by night, whither none
seemed to know. From that moment fears gathered thick upon the poor girl.
She dreaded Ishmael and guessed that his departure without communicating
with her boded her no good. Indeed, once or twice she almost wished that
she had taken Noie's counsel and given him over to the justice of the
King. Meanwhile of Noie herself nothing had been heard. She had vanished
into the wilderness.
Living this strange and most unnatural life, Rachel's nerves began to give
way. While she tried her cases she seemed stern and calm. But when the
crowd of humble suitors had dispersed from the outer court in which she
sat as a judge, and the shouts of the praisers rushing up and down beyond
the fence and roaring out her titles had died away, and having dismissed
the obsequious maidens who waited upon her, she retired to the solitude of
her hut to rest--ah! then it was different.
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