The first part of his speech was presently made good by the arrival of two Basutos, carrying some baskets, which contained rice, Indian corn, and several varieties of fruit. These were placed in the middle of the table, and a wooden platter was assigned to each guest, who sat down to something like a regular meal for the first day for many months past. “I don’t understand about this Queen,” said Frank, as he pushed away his wooden plate. “I remember my uncle told me that, beyond the limits of the Cape Colony, there were nothing but savages for hundreds and thousands of miles; and that it wasn’t safe for white people to venture among them. Who in the world can she be?”
“You seemed to know something about her, sir,” remarked Warley, turning to De Walden. “Perhaps you can explain the mystery.”
“I know nothing more,” said the missionary, “than that I sometimes heard, whilst living to the north of the Basuto country, that some hundreds of miles southwards, there was a tribe under the rule of a woman, whose race and colour was different from theirs, and who was generally believed to be an enchantress. That, of course, was mere barbarous superstition, but the true facts of the case I never learned. We shall doubtless, however, soon hear them, as we were to be summoned to her presence as soon as we had partaken of food. Ay, here, I suppose, comes the messenger to give us notice that she is ready to receive us.”
This conjecture proved to be correct, and in a few minutes they were ushered into the apartment, where the Queen of the Basutos sat in state to receive them. It was similar in construction to the one they had just quitted, but larger, and with more attempt at ornament. The ceiling was coloured white, relieved with green, and the walls a dark yellow; the latter exhibiting something like an attempt at panelling. At the further end was a kind of dais rising three steps, on the topmost of which stood a massive chair of ebony wood, and one smaller but of the same material by its side. The floor was spread with Kaffir mats of gay patterns, while several articles belonging only to European civilisation—books, an inkstand, a writing-desk, and the like—were arranged on a large heavy table of the same material as the chair. From the ceiling there hung a lamp, like those ordinarily used on board ships, and fed with oil, which diffused a very sufficient light throughout the apartment. Behind the royal chair, and on either side down the room, were several Basutos, wearing dresses made of the skin of the koodoo, or the leché, and carrying light assegais in their hands.
The Queen herself was a woman apparently between forty and fifty; bearing a strong resemblance to her daughter, but of a fairer complexion, her hair and eyes being also of a lighter brown. She was picturesquely, even richly, dressed, in a kind of long tunic of scarlet cloth trimmed with swan’s-down, over which she wore a robe of leopard skin; slippers and buskins of the same material as her gown, but thickly set with coloured beads and spangles. A tiara, similarly ornamented and surmounted by ostrich feathers, completed her attire.
She greeted her visitors as they moved up to her chair with graceful courtesy.
“You are English, I am told?” she said, interrogatively; “if so, my countrymen, and the first I have beheld for six and twenty years. But I have not forgotten the dear old language, in which, indeed, I and my daughter always converse, and it will delight us both to hear it from other lips beside our own.”
“Yes, madam,” answered De Walden, “we are English—my three younger companions entirely so; while I am of English descent and English parentage on the father’s side. We thank you for your kind reception of us, which, it is needless to say, is most welcome after the toils and dangers we have undergone.”
“Your appearance is that of a missionary,” rejoined the Queen. “May I ask if that is the case, and if so, what is your name, and where have you of late been residing?”
“I am a preacher of the Gospel,” said De Walden, “and my name is Theodore De Walden. I have been for many years in different parts of South Africa, both to the north and west of this land.”