At the top of the rise we halted for a second to breathe our horses; and, turning, glanced at the battle beneath us, which, illumined as it was by the fierce rays of the sinking sun staining the whole scene red, looked from where we were more like some wild picture than an actual hand-to-hand combat. The distinguishing effect from that distance was the distinct flashes of light reflected from the swords and spears, otherwise the was not so grand as might have been expected. The great green lap of sward in which the struggle was being fought out, the bold round outline of the hills behind, and the wide sweep of the plain beyond, seemed to it; and what was tremendous enough when one was in it, grew when viewed from the distance. But is it not thus with all the affairs and doings of our race about which we blow the loud and make such a fuss and worry? How antlike, and morally and insignificant, must they seem to the calm eyes that watch them from the arching depths above!
‘We win the day, Macumazahn,’ said old Umslopogaas, taking in the whole situation with a glance of his practised eye. ‘Look, the Lady of the Night’s forces give on every side, there is no stiffness left in them, they bend like hot iron, they are fighting with but half a heart. But ! the battle will in a manner be , for the darkness gathers, and the will not be able to follow and !’—and he shook his head sadly. ‘But,’ he added, ‘I do not think that they will fight again. We have fed them with too strong a meat. Ah! it is well to have lived! At last I have seen a fight worth seeing.’
By this time we were on our way again, and as we went side by side I told him what our mission was, and how that, if it failed, all the lives that had been lost that day would have been lost in vain.
‘Ah!’ he said, ‘nigh on a hundred miles and no horses but these, and to be there before the dawn! Well—away! away! man can but try, Macumazahn; and mayhap we shall be there in time to split that old “witch-finder’s” [Agon’s] for him. Once he wanted to burn us, the old “rain-maker”, did he? And now he would set a for my mother [Nyleptha], would he? Good! So sure as my name is the name of the Woodpecker, so surely, be my mother alive or dead, will I split him to the beard. Ay, by T’Chaka’s head I swear it!’ and he shook Inkosi-kaas as he . By now the darkness was closing in, but fortunately there would be a moon later, and the road was good.
On we sped through the , the two splendid horses we bestrode had got their wind by this, and were along with a wide steady stride that neither failed nor for mile upon mile. Down the side of slopes we galloped, across wide vales that stretched to the foot of far-off hills. Nearer and nearer grew the blue hills; now we were travelling up their steeps, and now we were over and passing towards others that sprang up like visions in the far, faint distance beyond.
On, never pausing or drawing , through the perfect quiet of the night, that was set like a song to the falling music of our horses’ ; on, past villages, where only some forgotten starving dog howled a welcome; on, past lonely moated ; on, through the white patchy moonlight, that lay coldly upon the wide of the earth, as though there was no warmth in it; on, knee to knee, for hour after hour!
We spake not, but us forward on the necks of those two glorious horses, and listened to their deep, long-drawn breaths as they filled their great lungs, and to the regular unfaltering ring of their round hoofs. Grim and black indeed did old Umslopogaas look beside me, mounted upon the great white horse, like Death in the Revelation of St John, as now and again lifting his fierce set face he gazed out along the road, and with his towards some distant rise or house.
And so on, still on, without break or pause for hour after hour.
At last I felt that even the splendid animal that I rode was beginning to give out. I looked at my watch; it was nearly midnight, and we were more than half way. On the top of a rise was a little spring, which I remembered because I had slept by it a few nights before, and here I motioned to Umslopogaas to pull up, having to give the horses and ourselves ten minutes to breathe in. He did so, and we dismounted—that is to say, Umslopogaas did, and then helped me off, for what with , stiffness, and the pain of my wound, I could not do so for myself; and then the horses stood panting there, resting first one leg and then another, while the sweat fell drip, drip, from them, and the steam rose and hung in pale clouds in the still night air.
Leaving Umslopogaas to hold the horses, I hobbled to the spring and drank deep of its sweet waters. I had had nothing but a single mouthful of wine since midday, when the battle began, and I was up, though my fatigue was too great to allow me to feel hungry. Then, having laved my fevered head and hands, I returned, and the Zulu went and drank. Next we allowed the horses to take a couple of mouthfuls each—no more; and oh, what a struggle we had to get the poor beasts away from the water! There were yet two minutes, and I employed it in hobbling up and down to try and relieve my stiffness, and in inspecting the condition of the horses. My , gallant animal though she was, was evidently much ; she hung her head, and her eye looked sick and dull; but Daylight, Nyleptha’s glorious horse—who, if he is served aright, should, like the steeds who saved great Rameses in his need, feed for the rest of his days out of a golden manger—was still comparatively speaking fresh, notwithstanding the fact that he had had by far the heavier weight to carry. He was ‘tucked up’, indeed, and his legs were weary, but his eye was bright and clear, and he held his shapely head up and gazed out into the darkness round him in a way that seemed to say that whoever failed he was good for those five-and-forty miles that yet lay between us and Milosis. Then Umslopogaas helped me into the saddle and—vigorous old that he was!—vaulted into his own without a stirrup, and we were off once more, slowly at first, till the horses got into their stride, and then more swiftly. So we passed over another ten miles, and then came a long, weary rise of some six or seven miles, and three times did my poor black mare nearly come to the ground with me. But on the top she seemed to gather herself together, and down the slope with long, convulsive strides, breathing in . We did that three or four miles more swiftly than any since we had started on our wild ride, but I felt it to be a last effort, and I was right. Suddenly my poor horse took the bit between her teeth and bolted furiously along a stretch of level ground for some three or four hundred yards, and then, with two or three jerky strides, pulled herself up and fell with a crash right on to her head, I rolling myself free as she did so. As I struggled to my feet the brave beast raised her head and looked at me with piteous bloodshot eyes, and then her head dropped with a and she was dead. Her heart was broken.
Umslopogaas pulled up beside the carcase, and I looked at him in dismay. There were still more than twenty miles to do by dawn, and how were we to do it with one horse? It seemed hopeless, but I had forgotten the old Zulu’s extraordinary running powers.
Without a single word he sprang from the saddle and began to me into it.
‘What thou do?’ I asked.
‘Run,’ he answered, seizing my stirrup-leather.
Then off we went again, almost as fast as before; and oh, the relief it was to me to get that change of horses! Anybody who has ever ridden against time will know what it meant.
Daylight sped along at a long stretching hand-gallop, giving the gaunt Zulu a lift at every stride. It was a wonderful thing to see old Umslopogaas run mile after mile, his lips slightly parted and his agape like the horse’s. Every five miles or so we stopped for a few minutes to let him get his breath, and then flew on again.
‘Canst thou go farther,’ I said at the third of these stoppages, ‘or shall I leave thee to follow me?’
He pointed with his axe to a dim mass before us. It was the Temple of the Sun, now not more than five miles away.
‘I reach it or I die,’ he .
Oh, that last five miles! The skin was rubbed from the inside of my legs, and every movement of my horse gave me . Nor was that all. I was with , want of food and sleep, and also suffering very much from the blow I had received on my l............