"
Now Dingaan saw that this was true, and gave no command, for he had
only those men with him whom the fire had left. All the rest were gone
to slaughter the Boers in Natal. Still, he must have blood, so he
turned on me.
"Thou art a traitor, Mopo, as I have known for long, and I will serve
thee as yonder dog served his faithless servant!" and he thrust at me
with the assegai in his hand.
But I saw the stroke, and, springing high into the air, avoided it.
Then I turned and fled very swiftly, and after me came certain of the
soldiers. The way was not far to the last company of the People of the
Axe; moreover, it saw me coming, and, headed by Umslopogaas, who
walked behind them all, ran to meet me. Then the soldiers who followed
to kill me hung back out of reach of the axe.
"Here with the king is no place for me any more, my son," I said to
Umslopogaas.
"Fear not, my father, I will find you a place," he answered.
Then I called a message to the soldiers who followed me, saying:--
"Tell this to the king: that he has done ill to drive me from him, for
I, Mopo, set him on the throne and I alone can hold him there. Tell
him this also, that he will do yet worse to seek me where I am, for
that day when we are once more face to face shall be his day of death.
Thus speaks Mopo the inyanga, Mopo the doctor, who never yet
prophesied that which should not be.
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