“It is well,” said Dick. “Now, O Great One! proceed with your questions, and be assured that ye shall learn the whole truth.”
“Listen, O Ingona,” said the king. “A while ago ye attempted to explain to me why ye had joined this conspiracy fomented by Sekosini. Is there aught more that ye would say in extenuation of your crime?”
“Nothing, O Great One,” answered Ingona sadly. “Our crime is too rank to admit of extenuation. It is true that there are those among us who think that even peace may be bought at too high a price, if that price includes the forgetting by our warriors of the art of war, and the impossibility of training our young men to fight. Never since the death of M’Bongwele have we been allowed to wash our spears in the blood of our enemies; and, in the opinion of many, those enemies are consequently growing overbold and insolent. But who are we that we should presume to judge the king’s actions, or to say to him: ‘Ye shall do this,’ or ‘Ye shall not do that’? To do so is a crime; and the king who tamely suffers it is too weak to govern so powerful a nation as the Makolo. Yet I committed that crime; and now, when it is too late, when that has been done which may never be undone, my greatest shame and grief are that I was ever weak enough to open my ears to the beguilings of that serpent Sekosini, that I ever permitted him to turn my eyes from the straight path and hide from them, until too late, the dreadful consequences that must have ensued had Sekosini’s plot succeeded.”
“Tis pity that ye saw not all this in time, Ingona,” said the king reproachfully. “Tell me, now—If this conspiracy had ripened to fruition, would you, O Ingona, have taken the field and led your warriors against me?”
“Nay,” answered Ingona, “that would I not. The time was when, blinded and misled by Sekosini’s plausible arguments and misrepresentations, I might have done so. But that time is past; even before the arrival of the Healer I had begun dimly to foresee the evil that must come to the nation through the plot; and it was in my mind to take steps for its frustration, but he forestalled me.”
“And you, Lambati?” demanded the king.
“Nay, O Great One,” answered the chief. “That I conspired against you, and joined your enemies, is true; but I know now that my madness was but momentary, and that, had the time come, I should have arrayed myself on your side, and against your enemies.”
“And you, Moroosi?” questioned the king.
“As I answered you a while ago, O Great One, as it was with Ingona, so was it and is it with me. I have no gift of fluent speech, but I pray you to recall what he said, and to believe that I agree with every word, and would fain say them all again.”
“And you, Sekukuni?” reiterated Lobelalatutu.