Therefore let me go, and if it should chance that I am taken, trouble not about the matter, for thus it will be fated to some great end.

Above all, though often enough I have been a traitor in the past, do not dream that I betray you, keeping in mind that so to do would be to betray my own soul, which very soon must render its account on high." "As you will, Hokosa," answered the king.

"And now tell those rebel dogs that on these terms only will I make peace with them--that they withdraw across the mountains by the path which their women and children have taken, leaving this land for ever without lifting another spear against us.

If they will do this, notwithstanding all the wickedness and slaughter that they have worked, I will send command to my _impi_ to let them go unharmed.

If they will not do this, I put my trust in the God I worship and will fight this fray out to the end, knowing that if I and my people perish, they shall perish also." Now Nodwengo himself spoke to the herald who was waiting beyond the wall.
"Go back to him you serve," he said, "and say that Hokosa will meet her who was his wife upon the flat stone and talk with her in the sight of both armies, bearing my word with him.