n thought,
repenting the fulfilment of his promise and casting off all disguise,
or, as is more probable, carried away by an over-mastering excitement
and strong personal and racial feeling and stimulated by
concentration upon one aspect only of the case, claimed the right to
address the Court again after the advocate for the defence had
spoken. Dr. Coster has the reputation among those who know him of
being a thoroughly honourable and straight-forward gentleman. As a
Hollander no doubt he felt deeply in a matter in which Hollanderism
was the _casus belli_; as public prosecutor it was his duty to
prosecute, not to judge; and one prefers to think that in peculiar
and trying circumstances he forgot the pledge he had given and
remembered only the cause of his party. In a short but very violent
speech he depicted in the blackest terms the actions of the men
against whom he had agreed not to seek exemplary punishment, and
pointing out the provisions of the Roman-Dutch law, claimed that the
Court should apply it in this case in preference to the statutes of
the country, and demanded from the Court the severest possible
penalty which could be imposed under that law and under the
Thirty-three Articles and the Gold Law as well. With reference to the
last-named, Dr. Coster having mentioned the provision regarding the
confiscation of property, said that upon this point he would not
speak but would leave the matter to the judgment of the Court. The
Court was then adjourned until the morning of the 28th, ostensibly in
order to enable the judge to consider the evidence and make up his
mind.

The majority of the prisoners, utterly unsuspicious of what lay
before them, made all necessary arrangements to return to their homes
and avocations upon the conclusion of the trial, believing that a
nominal fine would be the penalty imposed. Many of them had taken
return tickets from Johannesburg available for two days. The public
throughout the Transvaal and South Africa anticipated nothing more
than a nominal punishment upon the majority and a fine of a few
thousand pounds upon the signatories to the letter of invitation.

Some of the prisoners however were better informed. News had been
obtained some days before the trial commenced that extra
accommodation was being prepared in the gaol, avowedly to provide for
the Reformers. Two of the accused visited the gaol and verified this.
Others of the accused, few in number, were informed by perso