The Messenger Returned To Say No One Could Approach Her Sanctuary
Or Disturb Her Pleasure At This Hour; I Must Wait And Bide My
Time, As The Uganda Officers Do.
Whew!
Here was another
diplomatic crisis, which had to be dealt with in the usual way.
"I bide my time!" I said, rising in a towering passion, and
thrashing the air with my ramrod walking-stick, before all the
visiting Wakungu, "when the queen has assured me her door would
always be open to me! I shall leave this court at once, and I
solemnly swear I shall never set foot in it again, unless some
apology be made for treating me like a dog." Then, returning
home, I tied up all the presents her majesty had given me in a
bundle, and calling Maula and my men together, told them to take
them where they came from; for it ill became me to keep tokens of
friendship when no friendship existed between us. I came to make
friends with the queen, not to trade or take things from her - and
so forth. The blackguard Maula, laughing, said, "Bana does not
know what he is doing; it is a heinous offence in Uganda sending
presents back; nobody for their lives dare do so to the queen;
her wrath would know no bounds. She will say, "I took a few
trifles from Bana as specimens of his country, but they shall all
go back, and the things the king has received shall go back also,
for we are all of one family'; and then won't Bana be very sorry?
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