"Finished"
This tale, the third of the fall of the Zulu kings, begins with the annexation of the Transvaal by Sir Theophilus Shepstone. He is attended by his chief of staff, sir Melmoth Osborn, and the "editor" of the book, Henry Rider Haggard, then a junior secretary. Haggard himself read the proclamation, after Melmoth lost his way and came to a standstill. At the reading of the proclamation in PretoriaAllan Quatermain met the Honourable Maurice Anscombe, heir to a sizable fortune. They arrange that they will meet in eighteen months time (1 October 1878), as Anscombe wants to hunt buffalo in the Lydenburg district.
They meet as arranged, though the Lydenburg district is unsettled due to the uprising of the basuto chief Sekukuni. On their hunt they observe a Grecian temple-style white marble house. This, "The Temple", is the home of Mr Marnham and his daughter Heda, and Dr Rodd. They are labour agents for the Kimberley mines.
Quatermain and Anscombe shoot a couple of buffalo, but are then ambushed by Basuto. There is no time to stop to get the horns, "unless you are particularly anxious to say good bye to the world pinned over a broken ant heap in the sun, or something pleasant of the sort". They guard the ford while the guides inspan the wagon. However Anscombe is wounded in the foot, one horse is wounded and the other bolts, so they have to hobble uphill to the wagon.
Later, when they outspanned near the Temple, Quatermain spots the Basuto approaching, so they made a dash for it. The pursuit ends when the reach the grounds of the Temple. Dr Rodd, who was a surgeon in a London hospital, tends to Anscombe (who must stay for some weeks to ensure the leg and the foot are saved). He keeps up a practice on the local Kaffirs. It also seems, from a Bible in his room (which Anscombe and Quatermain are using) that he has been in prison at some time. Quatermain sends his head boy to bring up the reserve wagon and oxen which were left further back on their travels.
On a visit to the quarry from which the building material for the house was taken, Quatermain discovers hidden guns. Marnham and Rodd, who they already knew were scoundrels, are gun smugglers. Anscombe also recalls that a Marnham was in the Guards with his father, but was associated in some way with scandal, possibly over cards.
Over a game of cards Marnham, who drinks more than is good for him, loses £749 10 s to Quatermain and Anscombe. He pays with an uncut diamond, but not before he has a furious argument with Dr Rodd.
Miss Heda Marnham, who has been absent, now arrives. She is 20, almost 21, and Anscombe and she fall in love. Dr Rodd is jealous. He has some form of hold over Marnham, and has compelled him to promise her to him. Quatermain dreams that the ancient wizard Zikali is telling him to come to the Black Kloof (his home) in Zululand "when the storm bursts upon them".
Rodd came upon Heda and Anscombe kissing, and threatens them with his pistol. Quatermain shot the gun out of his hand. Marnham is not displeased, since he obviously hates Rodd.
Marnham is found dead at his desk the next morning. Rodd, who appears surprised, rides off to Pilgrim's Rest to get a doctor and to tell the magistrate - he fears that he will be held to blame. Marnham has left a note to Quatermain, with his Will. Quatermain takes the money, jewels and deeds from the safe, and keeps them.
They now learn that Sekukuni's Basuto will attack at night. It is impossible to defend the house - the servants have fled - so they prepare to flee (again). Footsack, the head driver, arrives just in time. But the fresh oxen team have been taken by the Basuto, and the two voorloopers assegaied - Footsack just escaping with his life. They leave in a wagon. They come across Dr Rodd returning to the house - he has put the Basuto onto them - and Anscombe kills him. They head for Zuululand, as Zikali advised Quatermain in his dream to do. They didn't want to do so, but Rodd's death might cause problems for them in Natal.
They saw the house burning in the distance, perhaps fired by the Basuto, or perhaps by accident.
While they stopped in a deserted kraal overnight the Basuto actually passed them. But they didn't see them, though Quatermain saw the pursuers by the flash of the lightning. The Basuto saw Macumazahn's head on the stone wall of the cattle kraal - he was looking between the stones - and fled, thinking it a ghost.
Quatermain and company reached the Crocodile River, where they would have drowned but for eight Swazi on the farther bank, who helped them out of the swollen river. Sekukuni's men fled. They rested in a neighbouring kraal, and then crossed Swaziland towards Zululand. They are met by Nombé, a witch-doctress, who was said to be the great-great-grand-daughter of Zikali. She also warns them against going to Natal,and escorts them to Zululand.
They arrive at the Black Kloof, which Quatermain last visited some 23 years earlier. The broad-shouldered dwarf with a huge head, whom Chaka had named "the thing-that-should-never-have-been-born", met Quatermain, afterwards summoning the spirit of Mameena, the long-dead Zulu woman who had loved Quatermain. Nombé saluted Zikali with "Makosi", as a great wizard and the home of many spirits.
In the dawn Quatermain is surrounded by Zulus led by the captain Goza. He is politely marched to Cetewayo's kraal, Ulundi, without being allowed to speak with Anscombe or Heda - though he leaves them a note. Upon arrival at Ulundi Quatermain discovers first-hand that war is in the air. He is almost lynched, but is saved by the arrival of the king himself, Cetewayo, who has the soldier hoisted by his own petard.
Zikali has been summoned to give the king and council the benefit of his wisdom, but he won't come to the royal kraal, instead insisting on being accommodated - and meeting the Great Ones - in the Valley of Bones.
Cetewayo asks Quatermain whether he should accede to the demands of Sir Bartle Frere, which include the disbanding of the Zulu army. Quatermain advises against making war on the Queen, as "she is the most mightly one in the whole earth, and though her foot, of which you see but the little toe here in Africa, seems small to you, yet if she is angered, it will stamp the Zulus flat, so that they cease to be". Cetewayo wants peace, but the war party is very strong. In any event Quatermain receives the protection of the king - though all other whites have fled and any others remaining can be killed.
Quatermain himself has his doubts about Zikali - "was this man quite human, or perhaps, an emissary of Satan upon earth". The Council assemles, and is frightened by the wizardry of Zikali. They are divided as to war or no war, and call upon Zikali to advise them. Zikali summoned Mameena, or is it Nombe "dressed, or undressed, for the part". She whispers to Quatermain about matters which he thought Mameena and he alone knew, but he is not entirely convinced. She then prophecised a successful war.
An aged counsellor asks for Chaka's spear to fall from the sky. It is pointed out that Zikali might have stolen the spear, which has been missing since the Black One's death. The Prime Minister, Umnyamana, asked Zikali to call down the white goddess of the Zulus, Nomkubulwana (Inkosazana-y-Zulu), for only then would they be sure that war was the proper choice.
Clouds passed over the moon, smoke from Zikali's fire hid the rock behind him, and a white woman, attired as Nomkubulwana, appears. This convinces most of the council, but Cetewayo, who doesn't want to fight the British, who were his friends, asks Quatermain to shoot at it. Since all know that Quatermain doesn't miss what he aims at, they decide to try the test. Quatermain suspects the woman is Nombe - it doesn't occur to him that it is Heda - so aims to miss. Even so, he sees fear in the eyes of the goddess as he takes aim.
A spear is seen to fly towards the King. Quatermain shoots it in two. It is found to be Chaka's own red wood spear. When they look up at the rock the goddess is gone. The king declares that there is to be war.
Quatermain is to take this message to the Government in Natal, and must be gone from Zululand within 24 hours or even he could be killed. He meets Kaatje, Heda's coloured servant, in his hut. She tells him that, after his departure, Anscombe and Heda were killed. At least, she saw their bodies, though she did not know how they died, or by whose orders.
Allan Quatermain crossed the Tugela, and joined the No 2 Column under Colonel Durnford. He then went to Maritzburg and delivered the king's message and reported the murders of Anscombe and Heda. He then hired himself and his wagon to the army. They trekked to Helpmakaar, or Rorke's Drift.
At Isandhlwana his servants reported rumours of an impending Zulu attack, though it was the day of the full moon, which was regarded as unlucky. He jokingly advised then to melt away if they were frightened - and they took him at his word. While Quatermain rode forward with Durnford the main camp was attacked by 20,000 Zulu, about one third of the army. Quatermain and Durnford fell back on the camp. As they were overwhelmed Quatermain fled towards Ulundi as the spirit of Mameena had advised him when she appeared before the council - saying that if he did so he would be protected. He met some parties of Zulus on his wild ride, but they all scattered before him, calling out words that he could not catch. "It was as though they were frightened of something they saw about me". His horse is shot, and died on Isandhlwana mountain.
Quatermain finds an Airedale terrier, which he adopts and names "Lost". Mounting an abandoned Basuto pony, he headed for the Nqutu Hills. He becomes delirious due to the sun, then is knocked unconscious by a bolt of lightning. He recovers to see Zikali. "The Heavens had tried to kill you and failed, perhaps because my magic was too strong for them" - Zikali is a great thunder-herd.
Anscombe and Heda are alive and the protection of Zikali. They recount their story. Heda was asked by Zikali to play the role of the Nomkubulwana, which she did. However, upon asking if Nombe had impersonated Mameena, Heda tells him that she had never left his side. Heda tells Quatermain that Nombe is jealous. Zikali had adopted her as an experiment, teaching her to never love a man, but her affections cannot be thwarted entirely, and she is devoted to Heda. Unfortunately this means that she is jealous of Mauriti (Maurice Anscombe) and Macumazahn.
Quatermain is very sick, and only slowly recovers. They now hear of the Battle of Ulundi, and the destruction of the Zulu army. Cetewayo is a fugitive, sought throughout the land. The ex-king arrives with a few followers. Zikali declines to hide him in his kraal, and sends Nombe as a guide to another camping site. In the early hours of the morning Quatermain (Macumazahn, Watcher-by-Night) sees Nomkubulwana guarding the entrance to their huts, barring the way in the face of a group of Zulus, evidently come to "take them away". The soldiers flee, but one throws an assegai, which pierces the Nomkubulwana - though she does not fall.
It is Nombe in disguise - and she is mortally wounded. She tells Quatermain that she was upset by Heda telling her that she was a nuisance. In her jealousy she decided to kill Macumazahn and Mauriti - for then Heda would love her alone (or so she thought). She was ordered to tell the king the truth about the Nomkubulwana (they had their suspicions all along), and did so. But she realised all within the Black Kloof would be killed - including Heda (the Lady Heddana).
Nombe asked her spirit for help - but it would not come, for she sought to do good not ill. So she sought the spirit of Mameena, who counselled her to masquerade as the Nomkubulwana. The price would be her life. She did as she was advised, and when she saw the Zulu soldier throw the assegai she knew it would pierce her to the vitals.
One of Zikali's servants now arrived, and Quatermain sent him to fetch Heda and Anscombe. Zikali arrived - he knew Nombe had lost her spirit, for as he said, it had returned to him. He was furious, she defiant. She then died, after bidding farewell to Heda. Zikali and his people wanted to throw her body to the vultures, but the whites ensured she was decently buried in her own hut. Zikali promised to hold back Nombe's spirit from haunting Heda - if he could.
Anscombe and Heda were married at Maritzburg, after which Anscombe sent Quatermain a blank cheque - which remained uncashed. They moved to Hungary (from whence Heda's mother come) to live.
Cetewayo hid in Ingone forest, as Zikali advised. But the latter told the authorities where the king was hiding, and he was soon captured. After travelling to England, and being restored as king, he was deposed by his own people. Later on, when Quatermain was visiting the residency at Eshowe, he discovered that Cetewayo was in a neighbouring kraal, dying. He was attended by Zikali - though it was possibly the latter who had poisoned the king. At any rate, Quatermain was sure he had been poisoned. Just before Cetewayo died, Quatermain noted how Zikali was "bending over the king like some grey vampire bat sucking the life-blood from his helpless throat'. Cetewayo dies. Zikali's mission is ended.
Quatermain leaves the kraal, walking some distance to a waterfall nearby. Here is is surprised to see Zikali. He manages to overhear what the wizard is saying. After referring to having been born "hundreds of years ago", he declares that his career is ended (after making a mighty sacrifice for his wives and children), and that he is returning his spirit to the pool from which he drew it. Quatermain sees a great yellow-bellied snake wound around his body. Zikali plunges into the pool and is never seen again.
This is the last of the three stories which recount the fall of the Zulu kingdom ("Marie" and "Child of Storm" being the others). It has stronger supernatural elements than the others, particularly the appearance of the Nomkubulwana (Inkosazana-y-Zulu) - which indeed is supposed to have actually happened. Allan Quatermain himself affects to be sceptical about supernatural manifestations, but ultimately it would seem that he had to admit that Mameena at least was a genuine spirit. Haggard himself believed in supernatural manifestations, especially after a ghostly experience with one of his dogs, a true story described in "A Ghostly Connection". Whether the gradually increasing supernatural elements in the stories reflected a deliberate plot device, or whether they reflected a changing attitude on the part of Haggard himself is uncertain. But it may be that the supernatural was becoming more important to him, particularly after the death of his son.
It might also be noted that there is an implication that Mr Marnham may have taken his own life. As well as the note address to himself, Quatermain discovered on the dead man's desk a quote jotted down, along the lines of "greater love hath no man". The inference is that he killed himself, thereby freeing his daughter from a hateful marriage to Dr Rodd, and also casting suspicion onto the latter person. Since suicide is not regarded as a proper course of action, there is no inference that this is actually what happened drawn in the text.
Haggard regretted the ending of the Zulu kingdom, though he perhaps saw it as inevitable (a similar inevitability was reflected in "Heart of the World").