Heroines as they were, they perhaps not very unwillingly obeyed; but when Percy told Biddy that she must retire, she exclaimed—
“What! me a gineral, an’ goin’ to desert me post! Sure, I don’t mind the niggers’ long spikes more than if they wor mop-handles.” And levelling a rifle, of which she had possessed herself, she fired down on the still advancing Zulus. Then picking up one after the other, she blazed away with deadly effect, bringing down a Zulu at every shot, until Percy told her to begin reloading, while he, with the other men who had now mounted to the platform, kept up the fire. Meantime Captain Broderick, with Lionel, had entered the fort. Mrs Broderick, who had been waiting with feelings it would be difficult to describe, seeing her husband and the young stranger appear at the gate, hurried forward to meet them. A brief embrace was all Captain Broderick had time to give his wife, before he, with Rupert and Crawford, climbed up on the platform, he having scarcely recognised his daughters in their strange attire. Lionel thought it was his duty to follow them. He was about to do so, when his eyes met those of the lady approaching him.
“Yes!” he exclaimed, “you must be—I know you are—my mother.”
Mrs Broderick threw her arms round his neck, and pressing him to her heart, kissed him again and again, as she exclaimed, in a voice choking with emotion, “You are my long-lost Walter: I need no one to tell me that; I remember every lineament of your countenance.”
For the moment, as she clasped her boy in her arms, she heard not the rattling of the musketry, the shrieks and yells of the assailants, the shouts of the defenders, the din of battle; every feeling, every sense was absorbed in contemplating her recovered child. She would scarcely release him from her embrace to receive the welcome which his sisters, who now came up, showed their eagerness to give him.
He looked at them with no little astonishment at first, not comprehending who they were, until they told him that Percy had persuaded them to dress up in order to deceive the enemy.
“But I must not let the rest be fighting on the walls while I remain down here in safety,” he said at length. “I don’t like to leave you, mother; but while others are exposed to danger, it is a disgrace to me to keep out of harm’s way.”
“But, my dear boy, I cannot let you go,” exclaimed Mrs Broderick. “You have only just been restored to me, and the assegais of the cruel Zulus might reach you on the platform. Percy has sent your sisters down, which shows that he considers there must be danger.”
“The same kind Being who has hitherto preserved me will take care of me still,” answered Lionel; “and my father and my brothers are exposed to the same peril.”
Mrs Broderick had a severe struggle, but his arguments prevailed, and she at length allowed him to join the defenders on the walls. The Zulus in the meantime had only retreated beyond musket shot.