Ever since the arrival of the Prince Imperial in the colony he had continued to win the friendship and esteem of all ranks, and his unassuming quietude and modesty, genial humour, and readiness to learn the most minute details of the profession he had adopted, made him a universal favourite. It has been previously mentioned that the Prince had been engaged in several reconnaissances, and only three days before his death he had been with Lord Chelmsford upon a patrol extending more than twenty miles into the Zulu country. On May the 28th General Wood received orders to move parallel to, but slightly in advance, of General Newdigate's column, from Kopje Allein, in a south-easterly direction towards the Itelezi hill. After three days had been spent in carefully exploring the country, General Newdigate moved forward on June 1st with his division, as nearly as possible 10,000 strong, and with a baggage train of 480 waggons. The country had been carefully scouted by Buller's Horse for twenty miles round, and no Zulus were reported near. On the evening of the 1st the column laagered not far from the Itelezi, and on the following day the General moved south-east along a level country towards the Inguita range; and the flying column being one march ahead, a communication was kept up by the vedettes of General Newdigate and General Wood. On Sunday, the 1st, General Wood with a small escort reconnoitred in advance of the column, which was about five miles in advance of General Newdigate's force. Away on the right and left were Buller's horsemen dotting the ridges of the hills on either side. In front lay green slopes, which were traversed here and there by watercourses, and bounded by the most singularly shaped mountains, flat at the summit and crowned with a sort of rocky dome. A good deal of rain had fallen in the night, and the morning was as clear and fresh as a May day in England. The General and his escort had ridden about six miles, when the path suddenly made a bend to the left, skirting a clump of trees, which grew near the edge of the stream. Pushing a way through thick thorny underwood mingled with date-palms and tall reeds, they at length looked down upon the still deep waters of a narrow river, flowing across a long red sandbank. A ledge of granite formed a rugged barrier eight feet or ten feet high across the river, and down the hollows of this the clear water rushed and gurgled in fantastic rills, cascades, and rapids, bubbling and eddying among the great masses of rock above, in many of which great holes were worn by stones which during the floods had settled in small hollows. Traversing a sandstone hill, with a long spur stretching away to the eastward, and rising in cliffs of 300 feet to the south of the river, they came upon a grove of fan-palms and mimosa, where the banks of the stream were covered with golden-blossomed acacias. Crossing the river by an easy ford, they had ridden on about another mile, when they observed some of the vedettes on the high ground to the left signalling that horsemen were approaching. Soon they came out upon an immense cultivated flat, terminating to the right in a long, dark, and winding gorge, black with bush, and arched by huge precipices of sandstone and granite. Into this they turned, and, following a Kaffir path marked with tracks made by Buller's men, they came upon a bush of about six or seven acres, in the centre of which were the remains of a burnt kraal and marks of recent fighting. On the edge of a small stream they discovered a path to the extreme right, in fact quite on the hillside, and here the surface showed numerous boot-marks, where the scouts had evidently been. They had now reached a plain, from which they were divided by a broad and well-worn watercourse, and here they were joined by three or four vedettes, who came to report that they had noticed some horsemen coming at a rapid canter from the direction of the Tombalaka and the Iyohgazi rivers, which were about equidistant between Wood's late camp and that of General Newdigate. They had not long to wait for the solution of the mystery, for, riding in the direction of the horsemen, they were met by Colonel Buller and a dozen of his men, who was equally anxious with General Wood to discover who the fugitives could be. They all rode on together, and rounding the base of the cliff came up with Lieutenant Carey and four troopers of Bettington's Horse. In a few seconds more the terrible secret was revealed, and Lieutenant Carey, whose horse was almost dead beat, and covered with foam, was rapidly relating to General Wood the details. "Where is the Prince?" exclaimed Wood, as he breasted his horse at some fallen trees which intervened, and dashed forward to meet the fugitives. "Speak, sir; what has happened?" "The Prince, I fear, is killed, sir," said one of the men, Carey being at first unable to speak. "Is that the case? Tell me instantly, sir," answered the General. "I fear 'tis so, General," was the answer; upon which our chief exclaimed, "And what are you, sir, doing here?" A veil must be drawn over the rest of the interview, which was of the most painful character. A short despatch was at once written while on horseback by the General, and in this a résumé of the fearful tragedy was told, how English soldiers had had the unutterable shame of seeing an English officer and four English troopers unwounded and escaped from a Zulu ambush, in which a gallant young Prince, the guest of England and the hope of France, had been barbarously slain. This letter was at once despatched by the General to headquarters, where he ordered Lieutenant Carey and his party to proceed and make their report.
The story elicited from Carey and the four men, in spite of a few discrepancies, was in the main as follows:—
On Sunday, the 1st of June, the Prince learnt that a patrol was to be sent out in advance of the column, to choose the site for the camp on the following day, and his Highness at once applied for and obtained permission to accompany it. At six o'clock on Sunday morning the Prince Imperial sent for his groom, and consulted him as to what horse he should ride, and the man strongly advised him not to take the large grey horse, which was eventually one of the causes of his death. This animal was not one of those selected for the Prince by Sir John Bissett, who had assisted him in the choice of others. He was a big, awkward-looking, but very powerful animal, but an inveterate buck-jumper, and, moreover, excessively timid under fire, a fault which in a charger is dangerous to the last degree. Two of the Prince's horses had died, either on the voyage out or soon after landing, and upon the fatal Sunday the grey horse was the only steed not lame or upon the sick report, so he had to be taken as a case of "Hobson's choice." At seven o'clock a note arrived addressed to the Prince, in which he was informed that permission was accorded him to go with the patrol about to be sent on to choose next day's camping-ground. This note was from Colonel Harrison, the acting quarter-master-general, and the Prince at once went over to his tent, and received final instructions from him verbally; which it must be assumed, were in accordance with the wishes of the Commander-in-chief, who expressly stated that the Prince was to be well cared for, to have no military responsibility, and yet, at the same time, was not to be interfered with, or in any way prevented from seeing the country. Lieutenant Carey's account of these matters is somewhat at variance with this statement of Colonel Harrison, as he (Carey) says that he was told that the Prince was to have the entire charge of the escort and the entire duty of selecting the camp. Lieutenant Carey says in his written statement, that it was by his express desire that he was named to accompany the escort, and he made this request in consequence of his knowledge of the country and, in some degree, of the language. Six men of Captain Bettington's Horse and the same number of Shepstone's Basutos were ordered to parade at half-past eight a.m. as escort, but for some hitherto unexplained reason the latter never appeared, and when Carey suggested they should wait for them the Prince, with that utter contempt for danger for which he was always remarkable, exclaimed, "Oh, no; we are quite strong enough!" At nine a.m. all was ready, a frugal breakfast of black coffee and biscuit had been partaken of, saddles, carbines, swords, revolvers, and accoutrements had been carefully inspected, and the word was given to "mount" and "away!" Before leaving the camp, however, a message was sent to Captain Shepstone to say that the escort would halt and wait for the six Basutos on the ridge between the Incenzi and Itelezi hills. A messenger was again sent to hurry on these natives, but it seems they never came, and therefore the patrol consisted only of the Prince, Lieutenant Carey, six mounted men of Bettington's Horse, and one friendly Zulu. This was certainly not a fit escort for such a charge, and it seems impossible not to attach a grave responsibility to the staff officer who made the detail. All the six Europeans were well armed and well mounted, their weapons consisting of the Martini-Henry slung across the back, ammunition in bandoleer, and a stout serviceable knife, which could be used for meals or on emergency as a weapon at close quarters. The Prince and Lieutenant Carey had not rifles, but swords and revolvers, and unfortunately the latter were not worn upon the person as they invariably should be, but in the holsters. The Prince had been on several visits to General Wood's camp, and was an enthusiastic admirer of both Wood and Buller, with the latter of whom he had become very intimate ever since the last two patrols he had made with him. With Lieutenant Carey his Imperial Highness had also an intimacy of some standing, and as Carey's skill as a draughtsman was well known in the camp, he had been selected on several occasions to assist his Highness in surveying operations.
The day had broken on this fated Sunday with all the glory of a real South African morning. It had been raining during the night, but this only served to give a more delightful perfume to the odorous plants that were crushed by the hoofs of the horses belonging to the escort. The rain of the previous day and night had refreshed the ground, and filled the various pools with water, and the plains were cheerful with the animals and birds coming out of the bush to feed. The patrol met with no adventure for some time, but continued its course along a valley running north-east, and narrowing gradually. The track in some places crossed bad spruits, and was undefined, and in parts obliterated by thorn-trees and bush. It was also commanded here and there by projecting spurs and bluffs, where an enemy could have easily hidden in force, and have attacked them at an advantage, but on either side could be seen the friendly Basutos scouting in the distance. The watershed of the mountain was reached about an hour after the patrol started, and on arriving at the ridge the Prince and Lieutenant Carey dismounted, as they wished to fix the position of some important hills with their compasses. Here Colonel Harrison overtook them, and remarked that the whole of the escort was not with them, adding that the patrol had better wait for the Basutos to come up. The Prince said, "Oh, we are quite strong enough. Besides, we have all our friends around us, and with my glass I can see General Marshall's cavalry coming up." Lieutenant Carey, as soon as he had finished his sketch, proposed to off-saddle and breakfast; but he states that the Prince overruled this suggestion and expressed a wish to push on to the river. The patrol accordingly proceeded on for about four miles, where for some distance the way was along the bottom of a deep sandy nullah with very precipitous sides, which they were forced to take as the only practicable place. This at length debouched into an open space, from which there appeared to be an entrance to a disused kraal some two miles up the ravine. Here the escort found that there was good drinking-water in some pools under a large kopje in front, situated in a complete amphitheatre of hills, and upon this kopje were some of our Basuto skirmishers. After watering the horses, the party advanced for a mile and a half along a commanding and rocky range of hills a short distance beyond the Ilyotosi river. Here Carey again proposed to off-saddle, but the Prince did not approve of the spot, and after some more sketching and surveying the country with telescopes and compass, the valley was descended as far as an isolated kraal, and the order was given to off-saddle. The Prince, who did not appear very strong, now complained of being tired, and while coffee was being prepared lay down beside the door of a hut.
The place where this halt was made would appear, from the statements of Lieutenant Carey and the surviving men of the escort, to be about as ill-chosen and suspicious a locality as could be found. The kraal where they now were consisted of about half a dozen huts, and was situated about three hundred yards from the river Moazani (so called by the Zulu who accompanied the party). Between the kraal and the river stretched a tall and luxuriant growth of that most dangerous cover, five, six, and seven feet in height, Tambookie grass interspersed here and there, as is customary, with equally tall mealies and Kaffir corn. The plains beneath this spot afforded every temptation to the artistic eye of the Prince, and here again another sketch of the panorama was quickly made. The bright glowing tints of the foreground, whose colours were lit up by green and fresh grass and wide-spreading acacia and flowering shrubs, well mellowed away in the middle distance, while far away towards the horizon were to be seen the shadowy outlines of the blue Itelezi hills. The kraal was not completely surrounded, for in front there was an open space where broken cooking utensils and burnt-out embers, bones, and other débris, showed that the place had not long ago been occupied. Some hungry-looking dogs came out and snarled at the intruders. Here the fatal order was given to off-saddle, and, in defiance of the most common and ordinary precautions, which the merest tyro should have taken, the horses were knee-haltered and turned out to graze, while coffee was prepared, and not the slightest search made in the cover around.
The friendly Zulu was sent down to the river for water, and also to see that the horses did not stray too far. All this time a party of Zulus, supposed to have been about thirty or forty, were concealed and watching the doomed party, who, utterly unsuspicious of an ambush, were seated around, chatting and sipping their coffee. A deep donga lay right across the path subsequently taken by the fugitives, and this served to screen the enemy as he stealthily crawled to his prey. Stealing noiselessly along, hidden by the rank vegetation, and unheard by the unwatchful escort, the savages came nearer and nearer to their quarry, but while creeping along were descried by the watchful eyes of the Kaffir, who, not losing a second, darted back to the Prince, and gave the warning of danger. A little delay now occurs, for his Highness fails to understand the native, who has to appeal to Corporal Grubb, one of the escort, to interpret. The corporal explains to the Prince, who looks at his watch, and (we are told) seeing it was ten minutes to four, says, "You can give your horses ten minutes more." But this must have been countermanded, for the horses were at once collected, and in a few moments were prepared to start. The Prince is carefully and calmly examining his bit and bridle, and, it is surmised, had not sufficiently tightened his girths. His grey horse is a fidgety, troublesome animal to mount, and now appears to be nervous and anxious to break away. Meanwhile all the escort stand to their horses and await the word, which the Prince now gives, "Prepare to mount." But this was the death-signal, for hardly had the order escaped the lips that gave it, and that spoke no other word on earth, than the fearful traditional "Usulu! Usulu!" awoke the echoes of the valley, and a tremendous volley was poured in from the favouring cover of the grass and mealies. All the horses swerved instinctively with terror, and some broke away. Private Rogers was shot before he could mount, and the Prince's tall grey, half mad with fright, became impossible to mount. Where is the English iron nerve that is proof against the panic of a moment? Where are the guardians of England's princely guest? All have lost their courage and their sense of manhood. Sauve qui peut! is the craven spirit of those who had they rallied back to back could have probably saved a noble life and preserved a nation's honour. Not a carbine was loaded, not a sentry placed. Surprise, the most unsoldierlike crime, was allowed, and white with fear each trooper galloped away to save himself, nor drew bridle-rein till miles of country placed safety in his path. Meanwhile, the gallant and unfortunate Prince is losing every chance of escape which the slightest attempt at succour would have given. One friendly hand to steady the scared and ill-broken steed; one carbine, even unloaded, presented at the bush—for the savages had not dared to come forth—or one gallant heart like Buller, Leet, or Wood to have shown the chivalry of France that England's sons were worthy of their ancient fame, and the Prince would have been alive to-day. There is, it is true, the testimony of one man, borne away by his frightened and possibly wounded horse, who says that not being more than half in the saddle, and having no control over his mount, he could not stay to aid the Prince. "Dépêchez-vous, monsieur!" he cried, as he swept by at a racing gallop, and that was all the warning he could give. And then—oh, shame and humiliation!—this young lad, schooled to arms with English soldiers' sons, wearing an English uniform, and escorted by British soldiers to a bloody grave, was left alone to be speared to death, without a sword being drawn or a shot fired, even from a distance, in his defence.
The Zulus, seeing only one man unable to mount, burst at length from their treacherous cover, and with fiendish yells rush upon the Prince, who, holding the stirrup-leather with one hand and the holster-flap with the other, must have made one final and desperate attempt to spring into the saddle. But all is in vain, the untrustworthy leather gives way in his hand; his feet slip from under him; he falls beneath the horse, which treads upon his body and gallops away! The last that was seen of the Empress's beloved son was, that he was alone and on foot, with some dozen Zulus poising their assegais within a few feet from him, and his body was afterwards found pierced in front with some eighteen or twenty thrusts, and stripped of all but his mother's amulet.
It cannot have escaped the reader that there are some discrepancies and anachronisms in the accounts given by Lieutenant Carey and the survivors of that fatal and ill-omened day, the 1st of June. These contradictions were not unnoticed by General Wood when he took down the report and forwarded it to the headquarter camp. In the first place we are told that the Prince was too rash and venturesome, and that he nearly lost his life on the day when, accompanied by Major Bettington, some of his men, and a party of Basutos, he visited a Zulu kraal in the neighbourhood of the camp, and was fired upon by the enemy. Now, on this as on former occasions, when the Prince went out with Colonel Buller, Lord Chelmsford, and other officers in charge of patrols or reconnaissances, he was perfectly well aware that he was merely incurring the same risk as were other English officers, whose lives to the British nation, if not to France, were as valuable as his, and whose temerity—if such it can be called—was absolutely necessary to the conduct of the campaign. But on the last fatal occasion his Highness was allowed to go alone, or virtually alone, for Lieutenant Carey does not seem to have taken his honest and proper share of responsibility, or looked after the most ordinary precautions which a subaltern of a week's standing would have carried out in a time of profound peace. We are told that the Prince gave all orders and words of command during the day, that he selected, approved of, and disapproved of each halting-place that was arrived at, and that when Lieutenant Carey wished the escort to muster and leave the deserted kraal at a certain hour the Prince demurred, and gave the order to stay much longer. Now this, if authentic, indicates a lack of military knowledge which it is difficult to understand as appertaining to an officer of Lieutenant Carey's standing. The rule of the service is imperative, and no civilian, no volunteer, and no guest, whatever his rank, may, can, or should at least be allowed to give a word of command when an official authority is present. If Lieutenant Carey, out of compliment or out of courtesy, allowed the Prince Imperial to choose the halting-places and to give the words of command to the troopers, whom he and not his Highness commanded, he betrayed an ignorance of the customs, duties, and etiquette of his profession which renders him totally unfit for the possession of her Majesty's commission. If he did not allow our deplored and gallant guest to select these halts, to choose the places for "off-saddle," and to give the necessary cautions and words of command in regard to mounting, why, then, he is still more to blame, as knowing, as he should have known, that he and not the Prince was in command, his first and transparently obvious duty was to post vedettes and keep a soldierlike look-out on all sides. Lieutenant Carey was specially ordered to take half a dozen Basutos with him, in addition to the scanty escort allotted by the Quarter-Master-General of six of Bettington's Horse. He says that the escort of Basutos never came, and that the Prince, when told of their absence, would not wait, but insisted on pushing forward. The captain of a ship who, at the instance of an impatient passenger, puts to sea with only half his water and provisions on board, endangers the lives of those under his command, and for ever forfeits his claim to future confidence in his conduct and prudence. We are told that as the first division and the flying column of General Wood were on converging lines, and were rapidly approaching, and that as the ground over which this fatal reconnaissance was made had been previously explored by the Prince, Lieutenant Carey was justified in arriving at the illogical conclusion that it must be safe from an enemy. A more preposterous assertion was never before made to hoodwink and blind justice. Why, not a day passed during this unhappy war when the troops, in all their camps, were not dogged and followed by parties more or less numerous, whose duties were to lie in wait for and cut off any imprudent scouts or stragglers from the camp. The officer in command of the escort should have been aware of this, and should have known that the fact of a particular neighbourhood or kraal having been searched a week previously and found deserted afforded no presumption that the locality would not be full of Kaffirs some days further on.
After the word "Mount" was given by the Prince, a fact which is to most minds somewhat doubtful, we are told that the volley of musketry was fired, and that some of the horses broke away, while that of the Prince became so frightened that he could not be mounted. "One by one the party galloped past the Prince, who was in vain endeavouring to mount." Where was the friend and associate of England's guest? Where was the officer who had specially applied for this sacred and most honourable duty? Where, we want to know, was the English officer in command of the "escort"? His place was with his men, not leading them away with their backs to the paltry handful of Zulus, which, it is now known, were in the mealies, but holding the ground, and covering the body of his charge. The captain of a sinking or waterlogged vessel is not the first man in the boats, leaving passengers and crew to sink without him. His place is upon his deck, trumpet in hand, and even if death-doomed, sinking like an Englishman under the shadow of the British flag. Such, comparatively, was the place and the devoir of the officer in command of the Prince's escort, and had he devoted one brief half-moment to see and aid our guest to his saddle he would, even if killed or wounded in the act, have earned a name in every English and French household more cherished and lustrous than the star of valour which our Queen gives to her bravest men.