CHAPTER XVII
RACHEL LOSES HER SPIRIT
A little while later Mami entered, and said that she had been sent byIbubesi to serve the Inkosazana as a messenger, should she need one.Rachel, seated on the bench, motioned to her to go into the hut and bidethere, and she obeyed.
Minute by minute the time ebbed away, and still Rachel sat motionless onthe bench. Towards the end of the third hour someone unbolted and knockedat the door. Mami opened it and reported that Ibubesi stood without, anddesired to know whether she had any word for him.
"None," answered Rachel, remembering her oath, and the door was barredagain.
After this a great silence seemed to fall upon the place. The sky was greywith distant rain, and the air heavy, and whatever may have been thecause, no sound came from man or beast without. To Rachel's strainednerves it seemed as though the Angel of Death had spread his wings abovethe town. There she sat paralysed, wondering what evil thing was beingworked upon her lover; wondering if she had done right to give him as asacrifice to this savage in order to save herself from dreadfulwrong--wondering, wondering till the powers of her mind seemed to diewithin her, leaving it grey and empty as the grey and empty sky above.
Night drew on and the setting sun, bursting through the envelope of cloud,filled earth and sky with fire, and it came into Rachel's heart, she knewnot whence, that fire was near, that soon it would swallow up all thisplace.
Look! the door was opening; it swung wide, and through it advanced eightKaffirs, carrying something on a litter made of shields, something thatwas covered with a blanket of bark. They drew near to her with bent heads,and set down their burden at her feet. Then one of them lifted theblanket, revealing the body of Richard Darrien, and saying in an awedvoice,
"Inkosazana, Ibubesi sends you this to look or to show you that he keepshis word. Later he will visit you himself."
Rachel knelt down by the litter of shields and looked at Richard's face.The stamp of death was on it. She felt his hand, it was turning cold; shefelt his heart, it did not beat.
"Show me this dead lord's wounds," she said in an awful whisper, "thatpresently mine may be like to them."
"Inkosazana," said the spokesman, "he has no wound."
"How, then, did he die? Strange that he should die, and I not feel hisspirit pass."
"Inkosazana, he was thirsty, and drank, then he died."
"So, so! he was slain by poison, and I have no poison. Mami, come forthand look on the white lord whom Ibubesi has murdered by poison."
The woman Mami, who had been sleeping in the hut, awoke and obeyed. Shesaw, and wailed aloud.
"Woe to Mafooti!" she cried, like one inspired, "and woe, woe to thosethat dwell therein, for now vengeance, red vengeance, shall fall on themfrom Heaven. The blood of the innocent is upon them, the curse of theInkosazana is upon them, the spears of the Zulus are upon them. Slay the_silwana,_ the wild beast--Ibubesi, and fly, people of Mafooti, fly, flywith that dead thing. Leave it not here to bear witness against you. Carryit far away, and heap a mountain on it. Bury it in a valley that no mancan find; bury it in the black water, lest it should arise and bearwitness against you. Leave it not here, but let the darkness cover it, andfly with it into the darkness, as I do," and turning she sped to the doorand through it.
The light from the sunk sun went out smothered in the gatheringthunder-clouds. Through the gloom the terrified bearers muttered to eachother.
"Throw it down and away!" said one.
"Nay," answered another, "wisdom has come to Mami, her _ehlose_ has spokento her. Take it with you, lest it should remain to bear witness againstus."
"Remember what the Zulu swore," said a third, "that if harm came to thislord they would kill all, down to the rats. Take it away so that it maynot be found. If you meet Ibubesi, spear him. If not, leave him thevengeance for his share."
Now, moved as though by a common impulse, the bearers cast back theblanket over the corpse, and lifting the litter, departed at a run. Thedoor was shut and bolted behind them, and darkness fell upon the earth.
For a while Rachel stood still in the darkness.
"Now I am alone," she said in a quiet voice, yet to her ears the wordsseemed to be uttered with a roar of thunder that echoed through thefirmament, and pierced upwards to the feet of God.
Then suddenly something snapped in her brain and she was changed. Thehorror left her, the terror left her, she felt very well and strong, sowell that she laughed aloud, and again that laugh filled earth and heaven.Oh! she was hungry, and food stood on a table near by. She sprang to itand ate, ate heartily. Then she drank, muttering to herself, "Richarddrank before he died. Let me drink also and cease to be alone."
Her meal finished, she walked up and down the place singing a song thatseemed to be caught up triumphantly by a million voices, the voices of allwho had ever lived and died. Their awful music stunned her and she ceased.Look! Wild beasts wearing the face of Ibubesi were licking the clouds withtheir tongues of fire. It was curious, but in that high-walled place shecould not see it well. Now from the top of the hut the view would bebetter. Yes, and Ishmael was coming to visit her. Well, they would meetfor the last time on the top of the hut. She was not afraid of him, not atall; but it would be strange to see him scrambling up the hut, and theywould talk there for a little while with their faces close together,till--ah!--till what--? Till something strange happened, something unhappyfor Ishmael. Oh! no, no, she would not kill herself, she would wait to seewhat it was that happened to Ishmael, that strange thing which she knew sowell, and yet could not remember.
How easy this hut was to climb, a cat could not have run up with lesstrouble. Now she stood on the top of it, her spear in one hand, andholding with the other to the pole that was set there to scare away thelightning; stood for a long time watching the wild beasts licking theclouds with their red tongues.
The beasts grew weary of lapping up clouds. Their appetites were satisfiedfor a while, at any rate she saw their tongues no more. The air was veryhot and heavy, and the darkness very dense, it seemed to press about heras though she were plunged in cream. Yet Rachel thought that she heardsounds through it, a sound of feet to the west and a sound of feet to theeast.
Then she heard another sound, that of the door in the wall opening, and ofa soft, tentative footfall, like to the footfall of a questing wolf. Sheknew it at once, for now her senses were sharper than those of any savage;it was the step of Ibubesi, the Night-prowler. She felt inclined to laugh;it was so funny to think of herself standing there on the top of a hutwhile the Night-prowler slunk about below looking for her. But sherefrained, remembering the dreadful noise when all the Heavens began tolaugh in answer. So she was silent, for the Heavens do not reverberatesilence, although she could hear her own thoughts passing through them,passing up one by one on their infinite journey.
Listen! He was walking round and round the yard. He went to the benchbeneath the tree and felt along it with his fingers to see if she werethere. Now he was entering the hut and groping at the bedstead, and now hehad kindled a light, for the rays of it shone faintly up through thesmoke-hole. Discovering nothing he came out again, leaving the lampburning within, and called her softly.
"Rachel," he said, "Rachel, where are you?"
There was no answer, and he began to talk to himself.
"Has she got away?" he muttered. "Some of them have gone, I know, theaccursed, cowardly fools. No, it is not possible, the watch was too good,unless she is really a spirit, and has melted, as spirits do. I hope not,for if so she will haunt me, and I want her company in the flesh, not inthe spirit. I ought to have it too, for it has cost me pretty dear. Shemust have bewitched me, or why should I risk everything for her, just onewhite woman who hates the sight of me? The devil is at the back of it.This was his road from the first."
So he went on until Rachel could bear it no more, the thing was tooabsurd.
"Yes, yes," she said from the top of the hut, "his road from the first,and it ends not far away,
at the red gates of Hell, Night-prowler."
The man below gasped, and fell against the fence.
"Whose voice is that? Where are you?" he asked of the air.
Then as there was no answer, he added: "It sounded like Rachel, but itspoke above me. I suppose that she has killed herself. I thought shemight, but better that she should be dead than belong to that fellow. Onlythen why does she speak?"
He started to feel his way towards the hut, perhaps to fetch the lamp,when suddenly the skies behind were illumined in a blaze of light, a broadslow blaze that endured for several seconds. By it the eyes of Rachel,made quick with madness, saw many things. From her perch on the top of thehut she saw the town of Mafooti. On the plain to the west she saw a numberof black dots, which she took to be people and cattle travelling away fromthe town. In the nek to the east she saw more dots, each of them crestedwith white, and carrying something white. Surely it was a Zulu impimarching! Some of these dots had come to the wall of the town; yes, andsome of them were on the crest of it, while yet others were creeping downits main street not a hundred yards away.
Also these caught sight of something, for they paused and seemed to falltogether as though in fear. Lastly, just before the light went out, sheperceived Ishmael in the yard below, glaring up at her, for he, too, hadseen her. Seen her standing above him in the air, the spear in her hand,and in her eyes fire. But of the dots to the east and of the dots to thewest he had seen nothing. He appeared to fall to his knees and remainthere muttering. Then the Heavens blazed again, for the storm was comingup, and by the flare of them he read the truth. This was no ghost, but theliving woman.
"Oh!" he said, recovering himself, "that's where you've got to, is it?Come down, Rachel, and let us talk."
She made no answer, none at all, she who was so curious to see what hewould do. For quite a long while he harangued her from below, walkinground and round the hut. Then at length in despair he began to climb it.But in that darkness which now and again turned to dazzling light, unlikeRachel, he found the task difficult, and once, missing his hold, he fellto the ground heavily. Finding his feet he rushed at the hut with an oath,and clutching the straw and the grass strings that bound it, struggledalmost to the top, to be met by the point of Rachel's spear held in hisface. There then he hung, looking like a toad on the slope of a rock,unable to advance because of that spear, and unwilling to go down, lesthis labour must be begun again.
"Rachel," he said, "come down, Rachel. Whatever I have done has been foryour sake, come down and tell me that you forgive me."
She laughed out loud, a wild, screaming laugh, for really he looked mostridiculous, sprawling there on the bend of the hut, and the lightningshowed her all sorts of pictures in his eyes.
"Did Richard Darrien forgive you?" she asked. "And what did you mix thatpoison with? Milk? The milk of human kindness! It was a very good poison,Toad, so good that I think you must have drawn it from your own blood.When you are dead all the Bushmen should come and dip their arrows in you,for then even crocodiles and the big snakes would die at a scratch."
He made no answer, so she went on.
"Have your people forgiven you? If so, why do they flee away, carryingthat white thing which was a man? Have my father and mother forgiven you?Do you hear what they are saying to me--that judgment is the Lord's? Havethe Zulus forgiven you, the Zulus who believe that judgment is theKing's--and the Inkosazana's? Turn now, and ask them, for here they are,"and she pointed over his head with her spear. "Turn, Toad, and set outyour case and I will stand above and try it, the case of Dingaan againstIbubesi, and one by one I will call up all those who died through you, andthey shall give their evidence, and I, the Judge, will sum it up to a juryof sharp spears. See, here come the spears. Look at the wall, Toad, _lookat the wall!_"
As she raved on and pointed with her assegai, the lightning blazed out,and Ishmael, who had looked round at her bidding, saw Zulu warriorsleaping down from the crest of the wall, and Zulu captains rushing in bythe opened door. At this terrible sight he slid to the ground purposing toreach his gun which he had left there, and defend or kill himself, whoknows which? But before ever he could lay a hand upon it, those fierce menhad pounced upon him like leopards on a goat. Now they held him fast, anda voice--it was that of Tamboosa, called through the darkness,
"Hail to thee! Inkosazana. Come down now and pass judgment on this wildbeast who would have harmed thee."
"Tamboosa," she cried, "the Inkosazana has fled away, only the white womanin whom she dwelt remains; her spirit hangs in wrath over the people ofthe Zulus, as an eagle hangs above a hare. Tamboosa, there is bloodbetween the Inkosazana and the people of the Zulus, the blood of those whogave her the body that she wore, who lie slain by them upon the bed atKamah. Tamboosa, there is blood between her and Ibubesi, the blood of thewhite man who loved the body that she wore, and whom she loved, the whitelord whom Ibubesi did to death this day because she who was the Inkosazanawould not give herself to him. Tamboosa, the Inkosazana has suffered muchfrom this Ibubesi, many an insult, many a shame, and when she called uponthe Zulus, out of all their thousand thousands there was not a singlespear to help her, because they were too busy killing those holy ones whomshe called her father and her mother. And so, Tamboosa, the spirit of theInkosazana departed like a bird from the egg, leaving but this shellbehind, that is full or sorrows and of dreams. Yet, Tamboosa, she stillspeaks through these lips of mine, and she says that from the seed ofblood that they have sown, her people, the Zulus, must harvest woe uponwoe, as while she dwelt among them, she warned them that it would be ifill came to those she loved. Tamboosa, this is her command--that ye shieldthe breast in which she hid from the wild beast, Ibubesi and all evil men,and that ye lead this shape to Noie, the daughter of Seyapi, whom Ibubesibrought to death, for with Noie it would dwell."
Thus she wailed through the deep darkness, while the soldiers who packedthe space below groaned in their grief and terror because the soul of theInkosazana had been made a wanderer by their sins, and the curse of theInkosazana had fallen on their land.
Again the lightning flared, and in it they saw her standing on the crestof the hut. She had let drop the spear as though she needed it no more,and her arms were outstretched to the Heavens, and her beautiful face wasupturned, and her long hair floated in the wind. Seen thus by that quick,white light, which shone in the madness of her eyes, she seemed no womanbut what they had fabled her to be, a queen of Spirits, and at the visionof her they groaned again, while some of them fell to the earth and hidtheir faces with their hands.
The darkness fell once more, and a man went into the hut to bring out thelamp that burned there. When he returned Rachel stood among them; they hadnot seen or heard her descend. Ishmael saw her also, and feeling his doomin the fierce eyes that glowered at him, stretched out his hand and caughther by the robe, praying for pity.
At his touch she uttered a wild scream, which pierced like a knife throughthe hearts of all that heard it.
"Suffer it not," she cried, "oh! my people, suffer not that I be thusdefiled."
They rent him from her with blows and execrations, looking up to theirchief for his word to tear him to pieces.
"No," said Tamboosa, grimly, "he shall to the King to tell this story erehe die."
"Save me, Rachel, save me," he moaned. "You don't know what they mean. Iwas mad with love for you, do not judge me harshly and send me to betortured."
This appeal of his seemed to pierce the darkness of her brain, and for alittle while her face grew human.
"I judge not," she answered in Zulu; "pray to the Great One above whojudges. Oh! man, man," she went on in a kind of eerie whisper, "what haveI done to you that you should treat me thus? Why did you command thesoldiers to kill my father and my mother? Why did you poison my lover? Whydid you drive away my soul, and fill me with this madness? Take me awayfrom this accursed town, Tamboosa, before Heaven's vengeance falls on it,and let me see that face no more."
Then some of them made a guard ab
out her and led her thence, along thecentral street, and through the barricaded gates, that they broke down forher passage. They led her to a little cave in the slope of the opposinghill, for although no rain fell, the gathered storm was breaking; thelightning flashed thick and fast, the thunder groaned and bellowed, and awild wind beat the screeching trees.
Here in the mouth of this cave Rachel sat herself down and looked at thekraal, Mafooti, awaiting she knew not what, while the impi pillaged thetown, and Ishmael, already half dead with fear, remained bound to theroof-tree of the hut that had been her prison.
Whilst she waited thus, and watched, of a sudden one of the outer hutsbegan to burn, though whether the lightning or some soldier had fired itnone could tell. Then, in an instant, as it seemed, driven by the ragingwind, the flame leapt from roof to roof till Mafooti was but a sheet offire. The soldiers at their work of pillage saw, and rushed hither andthither, confusedly, for they did not know the paths, and were tangled inthe fences.
A figure appeared running down the central street, a figure of flame, forhis clothes burned on him, and those by Rachel said,
"See, see, _Ibubesi!_"
He could not reach the gate, for a blazing hut fell across his path.Turning he sped to the edge of a cliff that rose near by, where, becauseof its steepness, there was no wall. Here for a while he ran up and downtill the wind-driven fire from new-lit huts at its brink leapt out uponhim like thin, scarlet tongues. He threw himself to the ground, he roseagain, beating his head with his hand, for his long hair was ablaze. Thenin his torment and despair, of a sudden he threw himself backwards intothe dark gulf beneath. Fifty feet and more he fell to the rocks below, andwhere he fell there he lay till he died, and on the morrow the Zulus foundand buried him.
Thus did Ishmael depart out of the life of Rachel to the end which he hadearned.
Nor did he go alone, for of the Zulus in the town many were caught by thefire, and perished, so many that when the regiment mustered at dawn, thatsame regiment which had escorted the Inkosazana to the banks of theTugela, fifty and one men were missing, whilst numbers of others appearedburned and blistered.
"Ah!" said Tamboosa as he surveyed the injured and counted the dead, "thecurse is quickly at work among us, and I think that this is but thebeginning of evil. Well, I expected it, no less."
As for the town of Mafooti it was utterly destroyed. To this day the placeis a wilderness where the grass grows rank between the crumbling,fire-blackened walls. For the people of Ibubesi who had fled, returnedthither no more, nor would others build where it had been, since stillthey swear that the spot is haunted by the figure of a white man who, intimes of thunder, rushes across it wrapped in fire, and plunges blazinginto the gulf upon its northern side.
After the storm came the rain which poured all night long, a steady sheetof water reaching from earth to heaven. Rachel watched it vacantly for awhile, then went to the head of the little cave and lay down wrapped inkarosses that they had made ready for her. Moreover, she slept as a childsleeps until the sun shone bright on the morrow, then she woke and askedfor food.
But the impi did not sleep. All night long the soldiers stood in huddledgroups beneath such shelter as the trees and rocks would give to them,while the water poured on them pitilessly till their teeth chattered andtheir limbs were frozen. Some died of the cold that night, and afterwardsmany others fell sick of agues and fevers of the lungs which killed anumber of them.
In the morning when the storm was past and the sun shone hotly Tamboosacalled the Council of the captains together, and consulted with them as towhether they should follow after the people of Mafooti who had fled, anddestroy them, or return straight to Zululand. Most of the captainsanswered that of Mafooti and its people they had seen enough. Ibubesi wasdead, slain by the vengeance of Heaven; the Inkosazana they had rescued,alive, though filled with madness; the white lord, Dario, had beenmurdered by Ibubesi, it was said with poison, and doubtless his body wasburned in the fire. As for the people of Mafooti themselves, it would seemthat most of them were innocent as they had fled the place, desertingtheir chief. To these arguments other captains answered that the people ofMafooti were not innocent inasmuch as they had helped Ibubesi to carry offthe Inkosazana and the white lord, Dario, from Ramah, and consented totheir imprisonment and to the death of one of them, only flying when theyhad tidings that the impi was on the way. Moreover the command was thatevery one of these dogs should be killed, whereas they had killed none ofthem, but only taken those cattle which were left behind in their flight.At length the dispute growing fierce, the captains being unable to come toan agreement, decided that they would lay the matter before theInkosazana, and be guided by the words that fell from her, if they couldunderstand them.
So Tamboosa went into the cave with one other man, and talked to Rachel,who sat staring at him with stony eyes as though she understood nothing.When at length he ceased, however, she cried:
"Lead me to Noie at the Great Place. Lead me to Noie," nor would she sayany more.
So, as the people of Mafooti had fled they knew not where, and they hadsecured some of the cattle, and as many of the soldiers were sick from thecold and burns received in the fire, Tamboosa told the regiment that itwas the will of the Inkosazana that they should return to Zululand.
A while later they started, those of them who were so badly burned thatthey could not travel, being carried on shields. But Rachel would not becarried, choosing to walk alone surrounded at a distance by a ring ofsoldiers who guarded her. For hours she walked thus, showing no sign ofweariness, but now and again bursting out into shrill laughter, as thoughshe saw things that moved her to merriment. Only the regiment thatlistened was not merry, for it had heard the words that the Inkosazanaspoke in the town of Mafooti, foretelling evil to the Zulus because of theblood that was between them and her. They thought that she laughed overthe misfortunes that were to come, and over those that had alreadybefallen them in the fire and in the rain.
About midday they halted to eat, and as before Rachel took food in plenty,for now that her mind was wandering her body seemed to call forsustenance. When their meal was finished they moved down to the banks ofthe Buffalo River, which ran near by, to find that it was in great floodafter the heavy rain and that it was not safe to try the ford. So theydetermined to camp there on the banks, murmuring among themselves that allwent ill with them upon this journey, as was to be expected, and that theywould have done better if they had spent the time in hunting down thepeople of Mafooti, instead of sitting idle like tired storks upon thebanks of a river. Yet bad as things might seem, they were destined to beworse, for while some of them were cutting boughs and grass to make a hutfor the Inkosazana, Rachel, who stood watching them with empty eyes, of asudden laughed in her mad fashion, and sped like a swallow to the lip ofthe foaming ford. Here, before they could come up with her, she threw offthe outer cloak she wore and rushed into the water till the current boreher from her feet. Then while the whole regiment shouted in dismay, shebegan to swim, striking out for the further bank, and being sweptdownwards by the stream. Now Tamboosa, who was almost crazed with fearlest she should drown, called out that where the Inkosazana went, theymust follow, even to their deaths.
"It is so!" answered the soldiers, as each man locking his arms round themiddle of him who stood in front, company by company, they plunged intothe water in a fourfold chain, hoping thus to bridge it from bank to bank.
Meanwhile Rachel swam on in the strength of her madness as a woman hasseldom swum before. Again and again the muddy waters broke over her headand the soldiers groaned, thinking that she was drowned. But always thatgolden hair reappeared above them. A great tree swept down upon her butshe dived beneath it. She was dashed against a tall rock, but she wardedherself away from it with her hands and still swam on, till at length witha shout of joy the Zulus saw her find her feet and struggle slowly to thefurther bank. Yes, and up it till she reached its crest where she stoodand watched them idly as though unconscious of the danger she h
ad passed,and of the water that ran from her hair and breast.
"Where a woman can go, we can follow," said some, but others answered:
"She is not a woman, but a spirit. Death himself cannot kill her."
Now the fourfold chain was near the centre of the ford, when suddenlythose at the tip of it were lifted from their feet as Rachel had been, norcould those behind hold on to them. They were torn from their grasp andswept away, the most of them never to be seen again, for of these men butfew could swim. Thrice this happened until strong swimmers were sent tothe front, and at length these men won across as Rachel had done, andcaught hold of the stones on the further side, thus forming a living chainfrom bank to bank, whereof the centre floated and was bent outwards by theweight of the water as the back of a bow bends when the string is drawn.
By the help of this human rope thus formed the companies began to comeover, supporting themselves against it, till presently the strain and thepush of them and of the angry river overcame its strength, and the chainburst in the middle so that many were borne down the stream and drowned.Yet with risk and toil and loss it joined itself together again and heldfast until every man was over, save the sick and some lads who were leftto tend them and the cattle on the further bank. Then that cable of bravewarriors began to struggle forward like a great snake dragging its tailafter it, and, so by degrees drew itself to safety and gasping out foamand water saluted the Inkosazana where she stood.
Many were drowned, and others were bruised by rocks, but of this theythought little since she was safe and they had found her again, to havelost whom would have been a shame from generation to generation. Shewatched the captains reckoning up the number of the dead, and whenTamboosa and some of them came to make report of it to her, a shadow as ofpity floated across her stony eyes.
"Not on my head," she cried, "not on my head! There is blood between theInkosazana and her people of the Zulus, and that blood avenges itself inblood," and she laughed her eerie laugh.
"It is true, it is just, O Queen," answered Tamboosa solemnly; "the nationmust pay for the sin of its children as the wild beast, Ibubesi, has paidfor his sins."
Then as they could travel no further that day, they built a hut, and lit agreat fire by which Rachel sat and dried herself, nor did she take anyharm from the water, for as the Zulus had said, it seemed as thoughnothing could harm her now.
The soldiers also lit fires and despatched messengers to neighbouringkraals commanding them to bring food, and to send maidens to attend on theInkosazana, while others went to a mountain to call all this ill-tidingsfrom hill to hill till it came to the Great Place of the King.