of the Prime Minister. Sir Hercules Robinson feared to leave the Colony without a Government, and so made it a condition that Rhodes should remain until he returned. To this Rhodes consented, and on January 2 Sir Hercules Robinson set out for the Transvaal after trying, but trying in vain, to take Hofmeyr with him. Sir Gordon Spriggalready looking with a certain complaisance to a change of masters-took over the direction of affairs.

2

As for Rhodes these things for him must have been like glimpses of the sickroom in a long delirium.1 He had lost his bearings. All those who saw him at that time speak of him dead to all but one consideration. 'I do not think,' says Jourdan, he slept a wink for five nights. Tony, his personal servant, told me that "the baas walks up and down his bedroom, which is locked, at all times of the night.' One of his guests at that time, Mr. Otto Beit, then a young man, has told the writer something of this agony of Rhodes. Upon the Monday, he said, when Rhodes did not return from the Mountain, and it grew dark, they became anxious, and sent out search parties; but Rhodes came in at last, ate little, talked in snatches, and then in his odd abrupt way went off to bed. In the middle of the night the young man was awakened by a figure bending over him. It was Rhodes. 'Come into my room,' Rhodes said, 'I want to talk.' And Beit, weary himself and sleepy, got up and followed. And then,

1 One definite action taken by Rhodes at this time should be mentioned here. On a signal from Jameson, Napier and Spreckley had called up the Rhodesia Horse, 1000 strong with 6 Maxims and 12-pounders. They were ready to invade the Transvaal, advancing by way of Tuli. But Rhodes, seeing it would only add disaster to disaster, telegraphed to Spreckley on January 1 that you are on no account to move the Rhodesia Horse.'-Cape Report, p. 289.

while Beit almost dozing sat on a chair in his dressing-gown, Rhodes lay on his bed and talked to him endlessly, as one who finds a comfort in talk. Beit, then between sleeping and waking, is now puzzled to remember what Rhodes said, but the drift of it was Jameson-Jameson's chance of getting through. After what seemed an eternity of time-at four in the morning as his watch informed him-the voice ceased and Otto Beit crept back to his room and fell asleep. But at five he was awakened by Rhodes, fully dressed, who made his guest dress too and ride with him along the mountain-side.

We have other glimpses of the man, walking up and down in his room without ceasing, without noticing what went on about him. When his secretary-Jourdan-came with the messages which showered upon him, he would select a telegram, look at it for a second, then replace it with the others, and resume his pacing up and down in an absent-minded manner.' And Michell, who saw him on January 4-when the bitterness of death was past'—got the same impression. At first he was quite unmanned, and without a word spoken, we held hands like two schoolboys. I was struck by his shattered appearance. After a while-never ceasing to walk the room like a caged lion-he poured out his soul and swept away many of the misconceptions which then and subsequently possessed the public mind.'

What these misconceptions were we shall shortly have to discuss. For the moment one sees only the strong man struck and blinded as it were by the lightnings of Jove. His work was in the dust, and he sat in the dust also, while his friends behaved according to their nature, some well and some ill,

some counselling and some keeping silence, some cleaving to him and some leaving him and reproaching him.

'Now that I am down,' he said, 'I shall see who are my real friends.' And he kept on going over this thought with a certain rueful humour as his habit was. Indeed, he never tired of it to the day of his death. It is worth while being down,' he would say, to see who are your friends.'

Among the true friends who came to him was Dr. Jane Waterston, who found him sitting on his stoep looking at the mountain. In the middle distance was a great bank, or rather both sides of a ravine, all blue with hydrangeas, which he had caused to be planted and were then in bloom. Beyond were clumps of pines, then woodland and above the grey precipices soaring skywards. As Dr. Waterston came to him he waved his hand at the prospect. 'Do you know what this means?' he asked her, and answered his own question, Peace!'

Then taking both her hands, he said, 'When my brother was in extremity he sent for you. When I was in extremity you came.'

CHAPTER XXVIII

PUNISHMENT

'Sed quantum vertice ad auras Aetherias, tantum radice ad Tartara tendit.'

WILLOUGHBY surrendered on terms, but to an undisciplined force. And although the surrender was in order, Cronje was bitterly blamed by some of his brother commandants for taking it upon himself to grant the lives of the Raiders. They were stripped of their arms; the dead left to be buried on the field; the wounded put in wagons, and the prisoners marched two and two to Krugersdorp. At 1 P.M. they passed the Staats Artillery, consisting,' according to Willoughby's diary,' of two Maxims and one or two pop-guns on wagons.' The Raiders were escorted by about fifty Boers under Neukerk, and took two hours to get over the hill into the town. A journalist, riding up close to the melancholy procession, found the Boers speaking with admiration of the bravery of the Raiders. The thing was impossible,' they said, pointing at the ground, 'hence the result.' The escort indeed were on very good terms with their captives; afterwards on the road to Pretoria they had a friendly dispute with them on the point of marksmanship; teams were drawn from the two sides, and the Police were fairly acknowledged to be the victors.

But as the force came into Krugersdorp several hundred fresh Boers joined the procession, the ex

citement grew, rifles were fired in the air, the prisoners were marched twice round the Market Square and stopped every few yards for some excited burgher to harangue the crowd-clamouring,' says Willoughby, for our immediate annihilation.'

Their captors were their salvation, for they closed in round the prisoners, ' told us to keep together and keep quiet,' and marched them to the Court House. There the officers were separated from the rest, and given a frugal meal of bread and water, and then Jameson and his Staff were taken to the Market Square, packed into a mule wagon, and driven a mile out of the town-close to the Dingaan's Day monument where they outspanned and slept. Here they were passed by their men and regimental officers, marching to Pretoria under escort. And as they passed Jameson and his Staff they drew themselves up, saluted, and, dead-beat as they were, broke into a cheer that surprised their escort, and must have gone to the heart of Jameson and his friends.

So they trekked through the night, and as they neared Pretoria they were not too tired to notice that everything was astir. First they met a strong body of mounted Boers riding towards Johannesburg, and then they were met by one or two carriages headed by a large Transvaal flag and followed by more mounted Boers. A sort of triumphal procession was formed, and as they got into the outskirts of the town they saw that the streets were lined with thousands of armed burghers afoot, although all of them, we may be certain, had their ponies in the town. The town swarmed with Boers, shaggy, bearded, nondescript as to their clothes, but all carrying a familiar rifle and a bag or bandolier