Yet as you are still
my guest, I will give you an escort to the borders of the land.
Moreover, you shall take a message from me to the Queen's
officers and captains. It is--that I will send an answer to
their demands upon the point of an assegai. Yet add this, that
not I but the English, to whom I have always been a friend,
sought this war. If Sompseu had suffered me to fight the Boers
as I wished to do, it would never have come about. But he threw
the Queen's blanket over the Transvaal and stood upon it, and now
he declares that lands which were always the property of the
Zulus, belong to the Boers. Therefore I take back all the
promises which I made to him when he came hither to call me King
in the Queen's name, and no more do I call him my father. As for
the disbanding of my impis, let the English disband them if they
can. I have spoken."
"And I have heard," I answered, "and will deliver your words
faithfully, though I hold, King, that they come from the lips of
one whom the Heavens have made mad."
At this bold speech some of the Councillors started up with
threatening gestures. Cetewayo waved them back and answered
quietly, "Perhaps it was the Queen of Heaven who stood on yonder
rock who made me mad. Or perhaps she made me wise, as being the
Spirit of our people she should surely do. That is a question
which the future will decide, and if ever we should meet after it
is decided, we will talk it over.
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