llion in Johannesburg rapidly
succeeded each other. One sultry evening our host brought us news of
tangible trouble on the Rand: some ladies who were about to leave for
that locality had received wires to defer their departure. Instantly, I
recollect, my thoughts flew back to the _Tantallon Castle_ and the dark
words we had heard whispered, so it was not as much of a surprise to me
as to the residents at Kimberley; to them it came as a perfect
bombshell, so well had the secret been kept. The next day the text of
the Manifesto, issued by Mr. Leonard, a lawyer, in the name of the
Uitlanders, to protest against their grievances, appeared in all the
morning papers, and its eloquent language aroused the greatest
enthusiasm in the town. Thus was the gauntlet thrown down with a
vengeance, and an ominous chord was struck by the statement, also in the
papers, that Mr. Leonard had immediately left for Cape Town, "lest he
should be arrested." It must be remembered that any barrister, English
or Afrikander, holding an official position in the Transvaal, had at
that time to take the oath of allegiance to the Boer Government before
being free to practise his calling. The explanation of the exceedingly
acute feeling at Kimberley in those anxious days lay in the fact that
nearly everyone had relations or friends in the Golden City. Our hosts
themselves had two sons pursuing their professions there, and, of
course, in the event of trouble with England, these young men would have
been commandeered to fight for the Boer Government they served. One
possibility, however, I noticed, was never entertained--viz., that, if
fighting occurred, the English community might get the worst of it. Such
a contingency was literally laughed to scorn. "The Boers were unprepared
and lazy; they took weeks to mobilize; they had given up shooting game,
hence their marksmen had deteriorated; and 200 men ought to be able to
take possession of Johannesburg and Kruger into the bargain." This was
what one heard on all sides, and in view of more recent events it is
rather significant; but I remember then the thought flashed across my
mind that these possible foes were the sons of the men who had
annihilated us at Majuba and Laing's Nek, and I wondered whether another
black page were going to be added to the country's history.

The next day, December 29, Kruger was reported in the papers to be
listening to reason; but this hopeful news was short-lived, for on
Monday,