Read thou the saying as thou wilt, or let the Ghost-people interpret it to
thee. Hear me, King and Councillors. Ye have kept me here when I would be
gone, my business being ended, that I might be a judge among this people.
Ye have told me that the rivers were in flood, that the beast I rode was
sick, that evil would befall the land if I deserted you. Now I know, and
ye know, that if it pleased me I could have departed when and whither I
would, but it was not fitting that the Inkosazana should creep out of
Zululand like a thief in the night, so I abode on in my house yonder. Yet
my heart grew wrath with you, and I, to whom the white people listen also,
was half minded to bring hither the thousands of the Amaboona who are
encamped beyond the Buffalo River, that they might escort me to my home."
Now at these bold words the King looked uneasy, and one of the councillors
whispered to another,
"How knows she that the white men are camped beyond the Buffalo?"
"Yet," went on Rachel, "I did not do so, for then there must have been
much fighting and bloodshed, and blood I hate. But I have done this. With
these Amaboona travels an English chief, a young man, one Darrien, whom I
knew from long years ago, and who does me reverence.
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