to give
it an air of depression and sadness. On the stoeps of the houses were
gathered groups of Dutch women and girls, many of them in deep mourning,
and all looking very miserable, gazing at us with unfriendly eyes.
Fine-looking but shabbily-clad men were to be met carrying their rifles
and bandoliers to the Landrost's late office, now occupied by Colonel
Plumer and his Staff. Sometimes they were leading a rough-coated,
ill-fed pony, in many cases their one ewe lamb, which might or might not
be required for Her Majesty's troops. They walked slowly and dejectedly,
though some took off their hats and gave one a rough "Good-day." Most of
them had their eyes on the ground and a look of mute despair. Others,
again, looked quite jolly and friendly, calling out a cheery greeting,
for all at that time thought the war was really over. I was told that
what caused them surprise and despair was the fact of their animals
being required by the English: "requisitioned" was the term used when
the owner was on his farm, which meant that he would receive payment for
the property, and was given a receipt to that effect; "confiscated,"
when the burgher was found absent, which signified he was still on
commando. Even in the former case he gave up his property sadly and
reluctantly, amid the tears and groans of his wife and children, for,
judging by the ways of his own Government, they never expected the paper
receipt would produce any recognition. Many of the cases of these poor
burghers seemed indeed very hard, for it must be remembered that during
the past months of the war all their things had been used by their own
Government for the patriotic cause, and what still remained to them was
then being appropriated by the English. All along they had been misled
and misinformed, for none of their leaders ever hinted there could be
but one end to the war--namely, the decisive success of the Transvaal
Republic. It made it easy to realize the enormous difficulties that were
connected with what was airily talked of as the "pacification of the
country," and that those English officers who laboured then, and for
many months afterwards, at this task had just as colossal and arduous an
undertaking as the soldiers under Lord Roberts, who had gloriously cut
their way to Johannesburg and Pretoria. Someone said to me in Zeerust:
"When the English have reached Pretoria their difficulties will only
begin." In the heyday of our Relief, and with news of Engl