There was philosophy in this, though, to tell the truth, I did not feel particularly sharp set on elephants at the moment.  I seemed to have had enough of them.  However, it would never do to show the white feather before the boys, so I assented with much outward readiness, and we started, I on the second horse, and the others on foot.  When we had travelled for the best part of an hour down the valley, all of a sudden we came upon the whole herd, which numbered a little more than eighty.  Just in front of them the bush was so thick that they seemed to hesitate about entering it, and the sides of the valley were so rocky and steep at this point that they could not climb them.

They saw us at the same moment as we saw them, and inwardly I was filled with fears lest they should take it into their heads to charge back up the gully.  But they did not; trumpeting aloud, they rushed at the thick bush which went down before them like corn before a sickle.  I do not think that in all my experiences I ever heard anything to equal the sound they made as they crashed through and over the shrubs and trees.  Before them was a dense forest belt from a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet in width.  As they rushed on, it fell, so that behind them was nothing but a level roadway strewed with fallen trunks, crushed branches, and here and there a tree, too strong even for them, left stranded amid the wreck.  On they went, and, notwithstanding the nature of the ground over which they had to travel, they kept their distance ahead of us.  This sort of thing continued for a mile or more, and then I saw that in front of the elephants the valley opened into a space covered with reeds and grass—­it might have been five or six acres in extent—­beyond which the valley ran on again.

The herd reached the edge of this expanse, and for a moment pulled up, hesitating—­evidently they mistrusted it.  My men yelled aloud, as only Kaffirs can, and that settled them.  Headed by the wounded bull, whose martial ardour, like my own, was somewhat cooled, they spread out and dashed into the treacherous swamp—­for such it was, though just then there was no water to be seen.  For a few yards all went well with them, though they clearly found it heavy going; then suddenly the great bull sank up to his belly in the stiff peaty soil, and remained fixed.  The others, mad with fear, took no heed of his struggles and trumpetings, but plunged on to meet the same fate.  In five minutes the whole herd of them were hopelessly bogged, and the more they struggled to escape, the deeper they sunk.  There was one exception, indeed, a cow managed to win back to firm shore, and, lifting her trunk, prepared to charge us as we came up.  But at that moment she heard the scream of her calf, and rushed back to its assistance, only to be bogged with the others.

Such a scene I never saw before or since.  The swamp was spotted all over with the large forms of the elephants, and the air rang with their screams of rage and terror as they waved their trunks wildly to and fro.  Now and then a monster would make a great effort and drag his mass from its peaty bed, only to stick fast again at the next step.  It was a most pitiable sight, though one that gladdened the hearts of my men.  Even the best natives have little compassion for the sufferings of animals.