Then she crept back into
the tree, and slept.
For nearly two months Nanea lived thus in the forest, since she could
not venture out of it--fearing lest she should be seized, and for a
second time taste of the judgment of the king. In the forest at least
she was safe, for none dared enter there, nor did the _Esemkofu_ give
her further trouble. Once or twice she saw them, but on each occasion
they fled from her presence--seeking some distant retreat, where they
hid themselves or perished. Nor did food fail her, for finding that
it was taken, the pious givers brought it in plenty to the Rock of
Offering.
But, oh! the life was dreadful, and the gloom and loneliness coupled
with her sorrows at times drove her almost to insanity. Still she lived
on, though often she desired to die, for if her father was dead, the
corpse she had found was not the corpse of Nahoon, and in her heart
there still shone that spark of home. Yet what she hoped for she could
not tell.
*****
When Philip Hadden reached civilised regions, he found that war was
about to be declared between the Queen and Cetywayo, King of the
Amazulu; also that in the prevailing excitement his little adventure
with the Utrecht store-keeper had been overlooked or forgotten.
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