Then she told
him how the Halakazi had claimed her, and of how, in the end, they had
taken her by force of arms, killing the people of that kraal, and
among them her own mother. Thereafter, she had dwelt among the
Halakazi, who named her anew, calling her the Lily, and they had
treated her kindly, giving her reverence because of her sweetness and
beauty, and not forcing her into marriage.
"And why would you not wed, Nada, my sister?" asked Umslopogaas, "you
who are far past the age of marriage?"
"I cannot tell you," she answered, hanging her head; "but I have no
heart that way. I only seek to be left alone."
Now Umslopogaas thought awhile and spoke. "Do you not know then, Nada,
why it is that I have made this war, and why the people of the
Halakazi are dead and scattered and their cattle the prize of my arm?
I will tell you: I am come here to win you, whom I knew only by report
as the Lily maid, the fairest of women, to be a wife to Dingaan. The
reason that I began this war was to win you and make my peace with
Dingaan, and now I have carried it through to the end."
Now when she heard these words, Nada the Lily trembled and wept, and,
sinking to the earth, she clasped the knees of Umslopogaas in
supplication: "Oh, do not this cruel thing by me, your sister," she
prayed; "take rather that great axe and make an end of me, and of the
beauty which has wrought so much woe, and most of all to me who wear
it! Would that I had not moved my head behind the shield, but had
suffered the axe to fall upon it.
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