Mitford, Bertram: The Induna's Wife. v1. 2 Nov 2013
 

Bertram Mitford (13 June 1855 - 4 October 1914) was a colonial writer, novelist, essayist and cultural critic who wrote forty-four books, most of which are set in South Africa. He was a contemporary of H Rider Haggard. A member of the Mitford family, he was the third son of Edward Ledwich Osbaldeston Mitford (1811–1912). The latter became the 31st Lord of the Manor of Mitford in 1895 (following the death of his brother Colonel John Philip Osbaldeston Mitford) and died at Mitford Hall, Northumberland, in 1912

Excerpt
The waggon stood outspanned in the tall grass, which, waist high, was about as pleasant to stand in as the drift of a river. Just above, the conical ridge, once crested with fort and waggon laagers, and swarming with busy life, and the stir and hum of troops on hard active service, now desolate and abandoned—the site, indeed, still discernible if only by ancient tins, and much fragmentary residue of the ubiquitous British bottle. Below, several dark patches in the grass marked the resting-place of hundreds of Zulu dead—fiery, intrepid warriors—mown down in foil and sweeping rush, with lips still framing the war cry of their king, fierce resolute hands still gripping the deadly charging spear. Now a silent and spectral peace rested upon this erewhile scene of fierce and furious war, a peace that in the gathering gloom had in it something that was weird, boding, oppressive. Even my natives, usually prone to laughter and cheery spirits, seemed subdued, as though loth to pass the night upon this actual site of vast and tolerably recent bloodshed; and the waggon leader, a smart but unimaginative lad, showed a suspicious alacrity in driving back the span from drinking at the adjacent water-hole. Yes! It is going to be a detestable night.