"Why?" asked Mr. Clifford anxiously.
"Because several of those beasts have been bitten by tetsefly, like my
horse, and the poison is beginning to work. I thought so last night, but
now I am sure. Look at their eyes. It was down in that bit of bush veld
eight days ago. I said that we ought not to camp there."
At this moment they came to the crest of the ridge, and on its further
side saw the wonderful ruins of Bambatse close at hand. In front of
them stood a hill jutting out, as it were into the broad waters of the
Zambesi river, which, to a great extent, protected it upon three sides.
The fourth, that opposite to them, except at one place where a kind of
natural causeway led into the town, was also defended by Nature, since
here for more than fifty feet in height the granite rock of the base of
the hill rose sheer and unclimbable. On the mount itself, that in all
may have covered eight or ten acres of ground, and surrounded by a deep
donga or ditch, were three rings of fortifications, set one above the
other, mighty walls which, it was evident, had been built by no modern
hand. Looking at them Benita could well understand how it came about
that the poor fugitive Portuguese had chosen this as their last place of
refuge, and were overcome at length, not by the thousands of savages who
followed and surrounded them, but by hunger.
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