ss than others, had wild and foolish men amongst them
who were easily misled by unprincipled adventurers.

Bezuidenhout seems to have been one of these; at all events he was
savage enough to treat one of his Hottentot servants so ill that he was
cited to appear before the Court of his district, and was foolish enough
to resist the summons. A messenger was therefore sent to arrest him,
and as he was known to be a daring character, and had threatened to
shoot any limb of the law who should dare to approach his residence,
twenty men of the Cape Corps, under Lieutenant Rousseau accompanied the
messenger.

On reaching the mountain home of Bezuidenhout they found him prepared.
He and a powerful half-caste in his employment were found sheltered
behind the high wall of a cattle enclosure, well armed. The Dutchman
called to the soldiers to stop, else he would shoot the first man.
Disregarding the threat, the lieutenant extended his men in skirmishing
order, and attacked. Bezuidenhout fired, happily missed, and retreated
into his house, whence he passed by a back-door into the thick jungle in
rear. They lost him for a time, but finally traced him to a steep
krantz, or precipice, up the almost inaccessible face of which he and
his follower had taken refuge in a small cavern. The muzzles of their
rifles were seen protruding from the entrance. Lieutenant Rousseau
therefore crept up warily, until he reached a ledge above the aperture,
from which point he challenged the farmer to surrender, telling him the
reason of his being there, and assuring him of personal safety.

The man replied he would die rather than submit. The Lieutenant
endeavoured to persuade him to surrender, but he was obdurate. Night
was approaching. The officer was anxious to get his men out of these
dark kloofs in daylight. He therefore ordered them to ascend in two
bodies. They did so, reached the cave, and rushed to the entrance, from
which Bezuidenhout fired, but without effect, the muzzle of his rifle
having been thrown up. At the same moment one of the soldiers fired
into the cavern, and shot the farmer dead on the spot. The servant
surrendered, and on entering the place it was found that a large
quantity of ammunition had been collected there, evidently with a view
to standing a siege.

After the departure of the military, the relations and friends of the
unfortunate and misguided man assembled to bury him, and, over his
grave, they vowed to a