The Second Division and Wood's Flying Column had marched to a mountain called the Entonjaneni, and there formed a camp about twenty miles distant from Ulundi as the crow flies. Vast quantities of thorn-bushes grew on the left of it, and before it spread an open plain; and to this camp came nearly the last envoys of Cetewayo, bearing two elephants' tusks as a sign of amity, promising a herd of cattle, and so forth. The tusks were declined, and the original conditions insisted on. However, Lord Chelmsford agreed to delay his final advance till the evening of the 29th of June.
Buller's Horse and the other mounted men were returning slowly from their long pursuit, when they drew near the kraals so recently destroyed, and saw that one hut was burning still, and casting a lurid light against the evening sky. All thought this strange, as before the repulse of the Zulus in the valley the fire in every kraal was completely over, as there seemed nothing more left to burn.
Suddenly Tom Tyrrell cried out, in a voice of the keenest excitement:
'The hut in which we left our officer is in flames—the poor fellow will be burned to death!'
'Who?' exclaimed Villiers.
'Our poor officer—Lieutenant MacIan.'
'God! you don't say so!'
'See for yourself, sir.'
'It is too evidently as you say. Forward at a gallop!'
The flames were sinking fast when they reached the hut, now reduced to a smouldering heap of ashes, and the horrible odour of burned human flesh overpowered the perfume of the wild flowers, amid which the great bees were yet humming; and poking amid the hot débris with their lances, the men of the 17th found the charred remains of what had been evidently a human body; and though inured to war, to bloodshed, and daily human suffering, the soldiers looked blankly and inquiringly in each other's faces, pausing for orders, and wondering what was to be done now.