you because he wished to be on the winning side.  It is not true.  He went over in order to be revenged upon Umbelazi, who had taken from him yonder witch”—­and she pointed with her finger at Mameena—­“yonder witch, whom he loved and still loves, and whom even now he would shield, even though to do so he must make his own name shameful.  Saduko sinned; I do not deny it, my Father, but there sits the real traitress, red with the blood of Umbelazi and with that of thousands of others who have ‘tshonile’d’ [gone down to keep him company among the ghosts].  Therefore, O King, I beseech you, spare the life of Saduko, my husband, or, if he must die, learn that I, your daughter, will die with him.  I have spoken, O King.”

And very proudly and quietly she sat herself down again, waiting for the fateful words.

But those words were not spoken, since Panda only said:  “Let us try the case of this woman, Mameena.”

Thereon the law officer rose again and set out the charges against Mameena, namely, that it was she who had poisoned Saduko’s child, and not Masapo; that, after marrying Saduko, she had deserted him and gone to live with the Prince Umbelazi; and that finally she had bewitched the said Umbelazi and caused him to make civil war in the land.

“The second charge, if proved, namely, that this woman deserted her husband for another man, is a crime of death,” broke in Panda abruptly as the officer finished speaking; “therefore, what need is there to hear the first and the third until that is examined.  What do you plead to that charge, woman?”

Now, understanding that the King did not wish to stir up these other matters of murder and witchcraft for some reason of his own, we all turned to hear Mameena’s answer.

“O King,” she said in her low, silvery voice, “I cannot deny that I left Saduko for Umbelazi the Handsome, any more than Saduko can deny that he left Umbelazi the beaten for Cetewayo the conqueror.”

“Why did you leave Saduko?” asked Panda.

“O King, perhaps because I loved Umbelazi; for was he not called the Handsome?  Also you know that the Prince, your son, was one to be loved.”  Here she paused, looking at poor Panda, who winced.  “Or, perhaps, because I wished to be great; for was he not of the Blood Royal, and, had it not been for Saduko, would he not one day have been a king?  Or, perhaps, because I could no longer bear the treatment that the Princess Nandie dealt out to me; she who was cruel to me and threatened to beat me, because Saduko loved my hut better than her own.  Ask Saduko; he knows more of these matters than I do,” and she gazed at him steadily.  Then she went on:  “How can a woman tell her reasons, O King, when she never knows them herself?”—­a question at which some of her hearers smiled.

Now Saduko rose and said slowly: 

“Hear me, O King, and I will give the reason that Mameena hides.  She left me for Umbelazi because I bade her to do so, for I knew that Umbelazi desired her, and I wished to tie the cord tighter which bound me to one who at that time I thought would inherit the Throne.  Also, I was weary of Mameena, who quarrelled night and day with the Princess Nandie, my Inkosikazi.”