This, then, is my plan: we will
search now by the starlight till we find the body of a fair maid, for,
doubtless, some were killed by hazard in the fight, and on her we will
set a warrior's dress, and lay by her the corpse of one of your own
men. To-morrow, at the light, you shall take the captains of your
soldiers and, having laid the body of the girl in the dark of the
cave, you shall show it to them hurriedly, and tell them that this was
the Lily, slain by one of your own people, whom in your wrath you slew
also. They will not look long on so common a sight, and if by hazard
they see the maid, and think her not so very fair, they will deem that
it is death which has robbed her of her comeliness. So the tale which
you must tell to Dingaan shall be built up firmly, and Dingaan shall
believe it to be true."
"And how shall this be, Nada?" asked Umslopogaas. "How shall this be
when men see you among the captives and know you by your beauty? Are
there, then, two such Lilies in the land?"
"I shall not be known, for I shall not be seen, Umslopogaas. You must
set me free to-night. I will wander hence disguised as a youth and
covered with a blanket, and if any meet me, who shall say that I am
the Lily?"
"And where will you wander, Nada? to your death? Must we, then, meet
after so many years to part again for ever?"
"Where was it that you said you lived, my brother? Beneath the shade
of a Ghost Mountain, that men may know by a shape of stone which is
fashioned like an old woman frozen into stone, was it not? Tell me of
the road thither.
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