By dawn on the following morning Leo was quite light-headed, and fancied that he was divided into halves.  I was dreadfully distressed, and began to wonder with a sort of sick fear what the end of the attack would be.  Alas!  I had heard but too much of how these attacks generally terminate.  As I was wondering Billali came up and said that we must be getting on, more especially as, in his opinion, if Leo did not reach some spot where he could be quiet, and have proper nursing, within the next twelve hours, his life would only be a matter of a day or two.  I could not but agree with him, so we got Leo into the litter, and started on, Ustane walking by his side to keep the flies off him, and see that he did not throw himself out on to the ground.

Within half an hour of sunrise we had reached the top of the rise of which I have spoken, and a most beautiful view broke upon our gaze.  Beneath us was a rich stretch of country, verdant with grass and lovely with foliage and flowers.  In the background, at a distance, so far as I could judge, of some eighteen miles from where we then stood, a huge and extraordinary mountain rose abruptly from the plain.  The base of this great mountain appeared to consist of a grassy slope, but rising from this, I should say, from subsequent observation, at a height of about five hundred feet above the level of the plain, was a most tremendous and absolutely precipitous wall of bare rock, quite twelve or fifteen hundred feet in height.  The shape of the mountain, which was undoubtedly of volcanic origin, was round, and of course, as only a segment of its circle was visible, it was difficult to estimate its exact size, which was enormous.  I afterwards discovered that it could cover less than fifty square miles of ground.  Anything more grand and imposing than the sight presented by this great natural castle, starting in solitary grandeur from the level of the plain, I never saw, and I suppose I never shall.  Its very solitude added to its majesty, and its towering cliffs seemed to kiss the sky.  Indeed, generally speaking, they were clothed in clouds that lay in fleecy masses upon their broad and level battlements.

I sat up in my hammock and gazed out across the plain at this thrilling and majestic sight, and I suppose that Billali noticed it, for he brought his litter alongside.

“Behold the house of ‘She-who-must-be-obeyed!’” he said.  “Had ever a queen such a throne before?”

“It is wonderful, my father,” I answered.  “But how do we enter.  Those cliffs look hard to climb.”

“Thou shalt see, my Baboon.  Look now at the path below us.  What thinkest thou that it is?  Thou art a wise man.  Come, tell me.”

I looked, and saw what appeared to be the line of roadway running straight towards the base of the mountain, though it was covered with turf.  There were high banks on each side of it, broken here and there, but fairly continuous on the whole, the meaning of which I did not understand.  It seemed so very odd that anybody should embank a roadway.