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Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider), 1856-1925

"Nada the Lily"

This man, indeed, said
nothing, yet he was not without his thoughts. For it seemed to him
that he had seen three pass through the archway, and not two. It
seemed to him, moreover, that the kaross which the third wore had
slipped aside as she pressed past him, and that beneath it he had seen
the shape of a beautiful woman, and above it had caught the glint of a
woman's eye--an eye full and dark, like a buck's.
Also, this captain noted that Bulalio called none of the captives to
swear to the body of the Lily maid, and that he shook the torch to and
fro as he held it over her--he whose hand was of the steadiest. All of
this he kept in his mind, forgetting nothing.
Now it chanced afterwards, on the homeward march, my father, that
Umslopogaas had cause to speak angrily to this man, because he tried
to rob another of his share of the spoil of the Halakazi. He spoke
sharply to him, degrading him from his rank, and setting another over
him. Also he took cattle from the man, and gave them to him whom he
would have robbed.
And thereafter, though he was justly served, this man thought more and
more of the third who had passed through the arch of the cave and had
not returned, and who seemed to him to have a fair woman's shape, and
eyes which gleamed like those of a woman.
On that day, then, Umslopogaas began his march to the kraal
Umgugundhlovu, where Dingaan sat.


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