Swallow: A Tale of the Great TrekHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
History
Swallow: A Tale of the Great Trek
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Historical fiction; South Africa -- History -- Great Trek, 1836-1840 -- Fiction; Transvaal (South Africa) -- Fiction
Indeed, the foolish dream of the diviner as to the leading of his army
by a white swallow, followed as it chanced to be by the arrival at his
town of a woman who was named Swallow, had taken such a hold of
Sigwe—who, like all savages, was very superstitious—that for nothing
which could have been offered to him would he have consented to let
Suzanne go until the war with the Endwandwe was finished. Rather than
do so he would have fought till the last, and he issued an order that
if any man, woman, or child spoke of Suzanne’s presence in his town to
strangers they should be put to death without mercy. Moreover, in his
terror lest she should escape, he set a guard over her and Sihamba day
and night and other guards over the horses and the lad Zinti, so that
they soon learned that all hopes of flight must be abandoned and that
it was not possible even to send a messenger or a letter.
As may be guessed this was a sore grief to Suzanne, so great a grief
that when they were back in the guest-hut she wept long and bitterly,
for her heart ached with her own sorrow, and she knew well how deep
would be the torment of mind of Ralph if he still lived, and of us, her
father and mother, when we learned that she had vanished quite away,
and that none could tell what her fate had been. At first she thought
of bidding Zinti slip away under cover of the night, but Sihamba showed
her that even if he could do so, which was not likely, the end of it
must be that he would be followed and put to death, and that then his
blood would be upon their hands and no good done. Afterwards she tried
to bribe and to command several men of her guard to take the message,
but in this matter alone the people of Sigwe would not obey her, for
they knew the doom which awaited them if they listened to her pleading.
So, when she spoke, they looked into the air over her head, and did not
seem to hear, although afterwards they reported her words to Sigwe,
whereupon that chief doubled the guard, setting a second to watch the
first.
And now I have to tell you one of the strangest things in the strange
story of the love of Ralph Kenzie and my daughter Suzanne. It will be
remembered that it was by means of a dream—or so the child
declared—that Suzanne was led to where the boy Ralph lay alone and
starving in the kloof. So now in this second great crisis of their
lives, it was by means of a dream that comfort was brought to the
hearts of both of them, enabling them, as I believe, to bear the
terrors of those long years of tidingless terror and separation, that
otherwise would have broken down their minds and perhaps have killed
them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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