en I last saw them, were
white only in comparatively small patches, the remainder being brown,
and in some places black!

By the time we had approached close enough to distinguish as much as
that, we all came to the conclusion that we knew what had happened; and
I saddled and mounted my horse and, followed as usual by the two dogs,
rode forward at a hand gallop to investigate. There had undoubtedly
been a conflagration, which had destroyed the house; and my father and
mother, with the house "boys", had in all probability gone over to
Triannon, whither, no doubt, the stock had also been driven. Still, I
thought it rather strange that they had not dispatched a "boy" to meet
me and explain what had happened, and whither they had gone, or at least
left one about the place to afford me full information on my arrival. I
finally concluded that they had done the latter, and that the lazy
rascal was in his hut fast asleep, instead of keeping a watch for me, as
he ought to have been doing. This last thought caused me to look
particularly for the huts, and then I understood another thing that had
been puzzling me: the huts no longer existed!

Seriously alarmed now--for the destruction of the house by fire by no
means necessarily involved the destruction of the huts, which had stood
about a quarter of a mile from the former--I pressed my heels into
Prince's flanks and urged him up the rise at his best speed, fears--born
of Lestrange's news on that night when he had ridden over to borrow
ammunition--at last gripping my heart lest what he had then apprehended
as just a very remote possibility might have actually come to pass. And
as I at length drew near enough to observe that the massive gate in the
high fence which surrounded our extensive garden was off its hinges and
lying flat on the ground just inside the opening, those fears increased,
and were still further strengthened when, as I rode through the opening,
a whiff of tainted air like the odour of carrion reached my nostrils.
Then, as I glanced about me, with eyes prepared to behold I knew not
what of horror, I perceived that many of the ornamental flowering shrubs
on either side of the path leading to the house were beaten down and
withered, as though stampeding cattle--or a host of men--had swept over
them; while far up the pathway, and even upon the stoep of the house
itself, a multitude of aasvogels were squatted motionless, apparently
gorged, while others were waddl