Many and many a time have I held out the hand of good-fellowship to the negro, but have never felt him clasp mine with the same heartfelt return. It has either been with a diffident pressure, as though something still concealed remained between us, or with a subtle slippery clasp, which gave one the idea of a snake wriggling in the hand, seeking when and where to bite. Thus communing with myself, I followed hesitatingly the heels of the Kaffir children; when they suddenly stopped, and pointing to some faint glimmering lights that appeared, in the murky atmosphere of the valley, to be far off, but in reality were close at hand, asked for the blankets I had promised, for there stood the huts in which their parents slept whom they had brought me to shoot! I halted the men, and ordered them to lie down: and there we lay, stretched out on the ground, within sixty yards of the village, watching the Kaffirs come out to tend their fires, and endeavour to conceal the glare, as though afraid of attracting attention, then cautiously looking round, retire to rest again inside their little branch-covered huts. While thus lying and watching to our front, some cautious footsteps from the rear were heard approaching, and several Kaffirs, finding out their mistake too late to fall back, threaded their way through our ranks as though the men were but so many logs of wood instead of the deadly foes they knew us to be. The last of these stragglers was leading a horse which obliged him to stop, as the brute stood snorting over one of the men--it refused to pass by. At length it made a plunge forward, and its heels coming disagreeably close to the man’s head as it landed on the other side, he rose, with a good hearty oath. The Kaffir, however, proceeded stolidly on his way. These Kaffirs stopped at the huts and spoke to the people around them, but evidently did not communicate the knowledge of our presence to their friends, for they retired again quietly to rest. My horse, Charlie--a good, sensible animal as ever a man bestrode (it was the charger that General Cathcart had given me)--having winded the horse the Kaffir had lately led through our ranks, threw off the hood his head was usually covered with to prevent his attention being drawn to other cattle while we were lying in wait around villages, and began to neigh. Out swarmed the Kaffirs like bees aroused harshly from their hives. They evidently knew the loud neighing of my entire horse did not proceed from one of their small Kaffir ponies, who, in their turn, were now replying to Charlie. Before a minute had passed, our men had opened fire, and the Kaffirs in return were hurling back to us their assegais. This did not last long. With a loud cheer the huts were charged. Soon all was over; and after pulling out the dead and the wounded, we set fire to the village.