So soon as he was gone Sihamba sent Zinti to bring Sigwe and two of hisgenerals to the place where she and Suzanne were encamped in a boothmade of branches and long grass. When they were come, she told them ofwhat she had learned from the love-stricken lad, adding that this planof making sure of what already she had suspected, had been born in thebrain of the Swallow, although she had carried it out. For when shedeemed that she could serve her mistress or win her honour, Sihambathought less of the truth than she should have done.
On learning this tidings Sigwe and his captains were full of wrath, andspoke of making war upon the Pondo chief at once, but Sihamba said:
"Listen; the Swallow has whispered a better way into my ear. It isthis: the embassy of the Pondos leaves at dawn, and you must bid themfarewell, telling them that you will follow and camp to-morrow nightat the mouth of the pass, which you will enter at the next daybreak.Meanwhile now at once we will send out my servant, Zinti, dressed like aPondo lad, to search the country, and find if there is not anotherpath by which the pass can be turned, for if such a way exists he willdiscover it and report to us to-morrow at nightfall, since he, who isstupid in many things, was born with the gift of seeking out roads andremembering them; also he knows how to be silent if questioned."
The chief and his captains thought this plan good, and thanked theSwallow for it, praising her wisdom, and within an hour, having beeninstructed what he must do and where he should meet them, Zinti wasdespatched upon his errand.
Next morning the envoys departed suspecting nothing, and taking withthem gifts and the ox of ceremony; and that night the army of Sigweencamped within a mile of the pass, to the right and left of whichstretched tall and difficult cliffs.
About an hour after sunset Zinti crept into the camp and asked for foodto eat, for he had travelled far and was hungry; moreover, he had beenchased by some Pondo soldiers to whom, feigning the fool he was commonlysupposed to be, he would make no answer when they questioned him. Whenhe had eaten he made his report to Sigwe, Suzanne, and Sihamba, and thegist of it was that he had found a good road by which men might safelyascend the cliffs, though not so easily as they could travel through thegorge. Following this road, he added, they could pass round the Pondotown, avoiding its fortifications, and coming out at the cattle kraalsat the back of the town, for he had climbed a high tree and mapped outthe route with his eye. Then followed a council of war, and the upshotof it was that, under the leadership of Zinti, the army marched off insilence an hour before midnight, leaving its cooking fires burning todeceive the Pondos.
They climbed the cliffs by the path he showed them, and, travelling allnight, at dawn found themselves before the cattle kraals, which, asno enemy was expected, were unguarded except by the herds. These theycleared of the cattle, some thousands of them, and marched on at speed,sending a message back to the town by the herds that this was the luckwhich those must expect who attempted to trap the Swallow in a snare setfor a rock-rabbit.
The Pondos were very angry at their loss, and, gathering their strength,followed them for some days, but before they could come up with themSigwe and his army had reached country so difficult and so far away thatthe Pondo chief thought it wisest to leave them alone. So they marchedon, taking the captured cattle with them, and after this bloodlessvictory Suzanne and Sihamba were greatly honoured by the soldiers, andeven the lad Zinti was treated like a chief.
Now once more they reached wild lands, inhabited only by scatteredtribes, and passed through them at their leisure, for they had plenty offood to eat, although from time to time they were obliged to encamp uponthe banks of flooded rivers, or to hunt for a road over a mountain. Itwas on the thirty-first day of their journey that at length they enteredthe territories of the Endwandwe, against whom they had come to makewar, where at once they were met by messengers sent by Sikonyana, thechief of the Endwandwe, desiring to know why they came upon him with sogreat a force. To these men the case was set out by Sigwe, speaking inhis own name and in that of the Swallow. As he had promised Suzanne, forthis was a savage who kept his word, he offered to refrain from attackif the young Batwa was exchanged for her one-eyed sister and sent tohim, together with the thousand head of cattle which he had paid, andtwo thousand more by way of fine. At first these terms were refused, butafterwards an embassy came of whom the captain was the brother of theking, who said that he was charged to discuss the matter with the whitechieftainess named Swallow, herself, and with none other.
So Suzanne, accompanied only by Sihamba, and mounted upon the great_schimmel_ that had come safe and well through all the journey, thoughthe black horse had died of sickness, rode out a hundred paces in frontof the army and met the man. There she spoke to him well and wisely,pointing out to him that without doubt a trick had been played uponSigwe which he was mad to avenge. The captain answered that they werewell able to fight. She replied that this might be so, that they mighteven conquer Sigwe and drive him back, but it could not be done withoutgreat loss to themselves, and that if his tribe were at all weakenedthe Zulus, who hated them, would hear of it, and take the opportunity tostamp them out.
Well, the end of it was that the Endwandwe yielded, and upon the promiseof Suzanne--for they would take no other--that no spear should be liftedagainst them, they sent the true Batwa, a beautiful but sullen girl, toSigwe, taking back the old Batwa, who departed cursing him and all hisrace. With her they returned also the thousand head of cattle which hehad paid and twelve hundred more by way of fine, for the balance wasremitted by agreement.
And so came to an end the war of Sigwe with the Endwandwe, which amongthe Kaffirs is still spoken of as the "War of the White Swallow," orsometimes as "The War of the Clean Spear," because no blood at all wasshed in it, and not a man was killed by violence, although when Sigwepassed through that country on his journey home, by means of a clevertrick the Pondo chief re-captured most of the cattle that had been takenfrom him.