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<h2> Chapter XXXV. THE LITTLE ONES IN BULIKA </h2>
<p>It was early in the morning when we set out, making, between the blue sky
and the green grass, a gallant show on the wide plain. We would travel all
the morning, and rest the afternoon; then go on at night, rest the next
day, and start again in the short twilight. The latter part of our journey
we would endeavour so to divide as to arrive at the city with the first of
the morning, and be already inside the gates when discovered.</p>
<p>It seemed as if all the inhabitants of the forest would migrate with us. A
multitude of birds flew in front, imagining themselves, no doubt, the
leading division; great companies of butterflies and other insects played
about our heads; and a crowd of four-footed creatures followed us. These
last, when night came, left us almost all; but the birds and the
butterflies, the wasps and the dragon-flies, went with us to the very
gates of the city.</p>
<p>We halted and slept soundly through the afternoon: it was our first real
march, but none were tired. In the night we went faster, because it was
cold. Many fell asleep on the backs of their beasts, and woke in the
morning quite fresh. None tumbled off. Some rode shaggy, shambling bears,
which yet made speed enough, going as fast as the elephants. Others were
mounted on different kinds of deer, and would have been racing all the way
had I not prevented it. Those atop of the hay on the elephants, unable to
see the animals below them, would keep talking to them as long as they
were awake. Once, when we had halted to feed, I heard a little fellow, as
he drew out the hay to give him, commune thus with his "darling beast":</p>
<p>"Nosy dear, I am digging you out of the mountain, and shall soon get down
to you: be patient; I'm a coming! Very soon now you'll send up your nose
to look for me, and then we'll kiss like good elephants, we will!"</p>
<p>The same night there burst out such a tumult of elephant-trumpeting,
horse-neighing, and child-imitation, ringing far over the silent levels,
that, uncertain how near the city might not be, I quickly stilled the
uproar lest it should give warning of our approach.</p>
<p>Suddenly, one morning, the sun and the city rose, as it seemed, together.
To the children the walls appeared only a great mass of rock, but when I
told them the inside was full of nests of stone, I saw apprehension and
dislike at once invade their hearts: for the first time in their lives, I
believe—many of them long little lives—they knew fear. The
place looked to them bad: how were they to find mothers in such a place?
But they went on bravely, for they had confidence in Lona—and in me
too, little as I deserved it.</p>
<p>We rode through the sounding archway. Sure never had such a drumming of
hoofs, such a padding of paws and feet been heard on its old pavement! The
horses started and looked scared at the echo of their own steps; some
halted a moment, some plunged wildly and wheeled about; but they were soon
quieted, and went on. Some of the Little Ones shivered, and all were still
as death. The three girls held closer the infants they carried. All except
the bears and butterflies manifested fear.</p>
<p>On the countenance of the woman lay a dark anxiety; nor was I myself
unaffected by the general dread, for the whole army was on my hands and on
my conscience: I had brought it up to the danger whose shadow was now
making itself felt! But I was supported by the thought of the coming
kingdom of the Little Ones, with the bad giants its slaves, and the
animals its loving, obedient friends! Alas, I who dreamed thus, had not
myself learned to obey! Untrusting, unfaithful obstinacy had set me at the
head of that army of innocents! I was myself but a slave, like any king in
the world I had left who does or would do only what pleases him! But Lona
rode beside me a child indeed, therefore a free woman—calm, silent,
watchful, not a whit afraid!</p>
<p>We were nearly in the heart of the city before any of its inhabitants
became aware of our presence. But now windows began to open, and sleepy
heads to look out. Every face wore at first a dull stare of wonderless
astonishment, which, as soon as the starers perceived the animals, changed
to one of consternation. In spite of their fear, however, when they saw
that their invaders were almost all children, the women came running into
the streets, and the men followed. But for a time all of them kept close
to the houses, leaving open the middle of the way, for they durst not
approach the animals.</p>
<p>At length a boy, who looked about five years old, and was full of the idea
of his mother, spying in the crowd a woman whose face attracted him, threw
himself upon her from his antelope, and clung about her neck; nor was she
slow to return his embrace and kisses. But the hand of a man came over her
shoulder, and seized him by the neck. Instantly a girl ran her sharp spear
into the fellow's arm. He sent forth a savage howl, and immediately
stabbed by two or three more, fled yelling.</p>
<p>"They are just bad giants!" said Lona, her eyes flashing as she drove her
horse against one of unusual height who, having stirred up the little
manhood in him, stood barring her way with a club. He dared not abide the
shock, but slunk aside, and the next moment went down, struck by several
stones. Another huge fellow, avoiding my charger, stepped suddenly, with a
speech whose rudeness alone was intelligible, between me and the boy who
rode behind me. The boy told him to address the king; the giant struck his
little horse on the head with a hammer, and he fell. Before the brute
could strike again, however, one of the elephants behind laid him
prostrate, and trampled on him so that he did not attempt to get up until
hundreds of feet had walked over him, and the army was gone by.</p>
<p>But at sight of the women what a dismay clouded the face of Lona! Hardly
one of them was even pleasant to look upon! Were her darlings to find
mothers among such as these?</p>
<p>Hardly had we halted in the central square, when two girls rode up in
anxious haste, with the tidings that two of the boys had been hurried away
by some women. We turned at once, and then first discovered that the woman
we befriended had disappeared with her baby.</p>
<p>But at the same moment we descried a white leopardess come bounding toward
us down a narrow lane that led from the square to the palace. The Little
Ones had not forgotten the fight of the two leopardesses in the forest:
some of them looked terrified, and their ranks began to waver; but they
remembered the order I had just given them, and stood fast.</p>
<p>We stopped to see the result; when suddenly a small boy, called Odu,
remarkable for his speed and courage, who had heard me speak of the
goodness of the white leopardess, leaped from the back of his bear, which
went shambling after him, and ran to meet her. The leopardess, to avoid
knocking him down, pulled herself up so suddenly that she went rolling
over and over: when she recovered her feet she found the child on her
back. Who could doubt the subjugation of a people which saw an urchin of
the enemy bestride an animal of which they lived in daily terror?
Confident of the effect on the whole army, we rode on.</p>
<p>As we stopped at the house to which our guides led us, we heard a scream;
I sprang down, and thundered at the door. My horse came and pushed me away
with his nose, turned about, and had begun to batter the door with his
heels, when up came little Odu on the leopardess, and at sight of her he
stood still, trembling. But she too had heard the cry, and forgetting the
child on her back, threw herself at the door; the boy was dashed against
it, and fell senseless. Before I could reach him, Lona had him in her
arms, and as soon as he came to himself, set him on the back of his bear,
which had still followed him.</p>
<p>When the leopardess threw herself the third time against the door, it gave
way, and she darted in. We followed, but she had already vanished. We
sprang up a stair, and went all over the house, to find no one. Darting
down again, we spied a door under the stair, and got into a labyrinth of
excavations. We had not gone far, however, when we met the leopardess with
the child we sought across her back.</p>
<p>He told us that the woman he took for his mother threw him into a hole,
saying she would give him to the leopardess. But the leopardess was a good
one, and took him out.</p>
<p>Following in search of the other boy, we got into the next house more
easily, but to find, alas, that we were too late: one of the savages had
just killed the little captive! It consoled Lona, however, to learn which
he was, for she had been expecting him to grow a bad giant, from which
worst of fates death had saved him. The leopardess sprang upon his
murderer, took him by the throat, dragged him into the street, and
followed Lona with him, like a cat with a great rat in her jaws.</p>
<p>"Let us leave the horrible place," said Lona; "there are no mothers here!
This people is not worth delivering."</p>
<p>The leopardess dropped her burden, and charged into the crowd, this way
and that, wherever it was thickest. The slaves cried out and ran, tumbling
over each other in heaps.</p>
<p>When we got back to the army, we found it as we had left it, standing in
order and ready.</p>
<p>But I was far from easy: the princess gave no sign, and what she might be
plotting we did not know! Watch and ward must be kept the night through!</p>
<p>The Little Ones were such hardy creatures that they could repose anywhere:
we told them to lie down with their animals where they were, and sleep
till they were called. In one moment they were down, and in another lapt
in the music of their sleep, a sound as of water over grass, or a soft
wind among leaves. Their animals slept more lightly, ever on the edge of
waking. The bigger boys and girls walked softly hither and thither among
the dreaming multitude. All was still; the whole wicked place appeared at
rest.</p>
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