The Angels Weep

It is the mid 1890s and the pioneer Rhodesians now feel secure enough to stake their mineral claims and stock their farms. Robyn Codrington, as passionate an upholder of African rights as ever, continues her research into tropical diseases at the Khami mission hospital. Her daughter Cathy is married to the increasingly prosperous Ralph Ballantyne, eldest son of Zouga, and now another daughter married Ralph's close friend Harry Mellow. But the brilliant wedding scene, illuminated with comedy as Robyn spars with her old foe Rhodes, gives a false impression of joyful stability. For in the hills, Bazo and his Matabele Indians are preparing for bloody rebellion. Only Juba, Bazo's mother, the Matabele girl whom Robyn saved from the wreck of the slave dhow in A Falcon Flies, still feels agonisingly divided in her loyalty as the moment approaches. The Matabele oracle has made three prophecies, and with the departure of Jameson with his 600 riders on his famous and disastrous raid, the third one is fulfilled. The Matabele rise and devastate the land in any orgy of murder. The hated Mungo St John is cut down, Cathy, Ralph's pregnant wife, butchered. Ralph's impatience with the tribesmen now becomes burning and unquenchable hatred. He is merciless in his suppression of the Matabele rising. In a chilling scene he kills the man who has been its inspiration, his childhood friend Bazo. The Matabelc are for the time being subordinated.