To this end I was dressed as a man,
that I might meet the fate of a man. Ah! a curse be on my woman's
weakness that snatched me from death to give me up to shame!"
Thus she prayed to Umslopogaas in her low sweet voice, and his heart
was shaken in him, though, indeed, he did not now purpose to give Nada
to Dingaan, as Baleka was given to Chaka, perhaps in the end to meet
the fate of Baleka.
"There are many, Nada," he said, "who would think it no misfortune
that they should be given as a wife to the first of chiefs."
"Then I am not of their number," she answered; "nay, I will die first,
by my own hand if need be."
Now Umslopogaas wondered how it came about that Nada looked upon
marriage thus, but he did not speak of the matter; he said only, "Tell
me then, Nada, how I can deliver myself of this charge. I must go to
Dingaan as I promised our father Mopo, and what shall I say to Dingaan
when he asks for the Lily whom I went out to pluck and whom his heart
desires? What shall I say to save myself alive from the wrath of
Dingaan?"
Then Nada thought and answered, "You shall say this, my brother. You
shall tell him that the Lily, being clothed in the war-dress of a
warrior, fell by chance in the fray. See, now, none of your people
know that you have found me; they are thinking of other things than
maids in the hour of their victory.
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