urprising that people should want
to know why?

The men were removed from Court under very heavy escort, the
condemned men being conveyed in a closed carriage and the rest of the
prisoners being marched through the streets to the gaol, the whole
party moving at a foot pace. A little incident at the start did not
fail to attract attention. The officer commanding a section of the
guard having issued his orders in Dutch and some confusion having
ensued, the orders were repeated _in German_, with a satisfactory
result.

One more incident--trifling perhaps in itself but leaving an
ineffaceable impression--occurred during the march to the gaol. As
the prisoners slowly approached the Government buildings, Dr. Leyds
accompanied by one friend walked out until within a few yards of the
procession of sentenced men (a great proportion of whom were
personally well known to him) and stood there with his hands in his
pockets smiling at them as they went past. The action was so
remarkable, the expression on the State Secretary's face so
unmistakable, that the Dutch guards accompanying the prisoners
expressed their disgust. His triumph no doubt was considerable; but
the enjoyment must have been short-lived if the accounts given by
other members of the Executive of his behaviour a month later are
to be credited. The man who stood in safety and smiled in the faces
of his victims was the same Dr. Leyds who within a month became
seriously ill because some fiery and impetuous friend of the
prisoners sent him an anonymous letter with a death's head and
cross-bones; who as a result obtained from Government a guard over
his private house; and who thereafter proceeded about his duties in
Pretoria under armed escort.

It is stated that the death sentence was commuted the same afternoon,
but no intimation of this was given to the prisoners and no public
announcement was made until twenty-four hours later. In spite of the
vindictive urgings of the Hollander newspaper, the _Volksstem_, few
could believe that the death sentence would be carried out and most
people recognized that the ebullitions of that organ expressed the
feelings of only a few rabid and witless individuals among the
Hollanders themselves and were viewed with disgust by the great
majority of them. At the same time the scene in court had been such
as to show that the Government party--the officials and Boers then
present--had not regarded the death sentence as a mere formality,