Further, that afterwards you brought about the said murder, having first arranged with the king of the Zulus that you should be removed to a place of safety while it was done.

Do you plead Guilty or Not guilty ?" Now when I heard this false and abominable charge my rage and indignation caused me to laugh aloud.
"Are you mad, commandant," I exclaimed, "that you should say such things?
On what evidence is this wicked lie advanced against me ?" "No, Allan Quatermain, I am not mad," he replied, "although it is true that through your evil doings I, who have lost my wife and three children by the Zulu spears, have suffered enough to make me mad.

As for the evidence against you, you shall hear it.

But first I will write down that you plead Not guilty." He did so, then said: "If you will acknowledge certain things it will save us all much time, of which at present we have little to spare.

Those things are that knowing what was going to happen to the commission, you tried to avoid accompanying it.