Now a great shout rose from every throat.
“We will go with you, Bulalio, to victory or death!”
So on the morrow they marched, and there was wailing among the women of the People of the Axe. Only Zinita did not wail, but stood by in wrath, foreboding evil; nor would she bid her lord farewell, yet when he was gone she wept also.
Now Umslopogaas and his impi travelled fast and far, hungering and thirsting, till at length they came to the land of the Umswazi, and after a while entered the territory of the Halakazi by a high and narrow pass. The fear of Galazi the Wolf was that they should find this pass held, for though they had harmed none in the kraals as they went, and taken only enough cattle to feed themselves, yet he knew well that messengers had sped by day and night to warn the people of the Halakazi. But they found no man in the pass, and on the other side of it they rested, for the night was far spent. At dawn Umslopogaas looked out over the wide plains beyond, and Galazi showed him a long low hill, two hours’ march away.
“There, my brother,” he said, “lies the head kraal of the Halakazi, where I was born, and in that hill is the great cave.”
Then they went on, and before the sun was high they came to the crest of a rise, and heard the sound of horns on its farther side. They stood upon the rise, and looked, and lo! yet far off, but running towards them, was the whole impi of the Halakazi, and it was a great impi.
“They have gathered their strength indeed,” said Galazi. “For every man of ours there are three of these Swazis!”
The soldiers saw also, and the courage of some of them sank low. Then Umslopogaas spoke to them:—
“Yonder are the Swazi dogs, my children; they are many and we are few. Yet, shall it be told at home that we, men of the Zulu blood, were hunted by a pack of Swazi dogs? Shall our women and children sing that song in our ears, O Soldiers of the Axe?”
Now some cried “Never!” but some were silent; so Umslopogaas spoke again:—