In due time our first outspan was reached--a wide vley with a small
spruit meandering lazily through it, and plenty of rich grass for the
oxen--and here a halt was called for a couple of hours during the
hottest part of the day; then on again to the next outspan, which was
reached about an hour before sunset. Here my aversion to mutton again
asserted itself; and while the "boys" watered the oxen, built the camp
fire, and generally made preparations for the coming night, I took my
rifle, and, accompanied as usual by the two dogs, and by Piet, carrying
my double-barrelled 12-bore shot gun, I sauntered off in search of
something acceptable for supper.
The spot where we had outspanned for the night was the one which I
usually chose as the termination of the second stage of my journey when
going to Port Elizabeth. It was an extensive flat, dotted here and
there with big clumps of bush, and with a wide, shallow depression in
the ground, about a mile distant from the wagon. Into this the same
spruit alongside which we had outspanned at midday found its way and
widened out into a broad, shallow, reed-bordered sheet of water, much
frequented by wild duck, widgeon, and geese, and also the favourite
drinking place of all the game haunting its immediate neighbourhood. I
felt pretty certain, therefore, of getting a shot at something by
ambushing myself among the reeds, and to this spot I accordingly made my
way. As it happened, we arrived in the very nick of time, for we had
scarcely taken up a position among the reeds, in a situation that
enabled me to command a view of a good wide stretch of water, when I saw
a faint smudge against the clear sky southward, which rapidly resolved
itself into a big flight of wild duck heading directly for the end of
the pond near where I was ambushed; and I had only time to pass my rifle
to Piet and receive from him the shot gun in exchange when, with much
quacking, the flight wheeled and proceeded to settle down upon the
surface of the water. As they did so I raised my weapon, and, aiming
into the "brown", pressed both triggers, one immediately after the
other, with the result that five of the duck dropped dead, while another
half-dozen fell wounded, the whole being promptly retrieved by Piet and
the dogs, who all dashed into the shallow water and brought them ashore.
Eleven birds constituted an ample supply for our immediate requirements,
both for supper that night and for breakfast next morning; and as I made
a point of never destroying the wild things except as a matter of
necessity, we forthwith returned to the wagon and proceeded to pluck and
prepare as many of the duck as we needed for supper, afterward roasting
them over the camp fire. By the time the meal was ready for consumption
the soft, velvet darkness of the South African starlit night had fallen,
and we ate our meal to the accompaniment of the usual night sounds of
the veld where water happens to be near--the soft, subdued quacking of
drowsy waterfowl, the occasional "honk" of a belated goose, the stealthy
splashing of bucks wading warily into the deeper and cleaner water clear
of the rushes before venturing to drink, mysterious rustlings among the
reeds, the distant call of buck to each other in the bush, the sharp
bark of the jackal, the blood-curdling laugh of the prowling hyena, and
the occasional roar of the leopard; the whole dominated by the incessant
noise of millions of frogs, and the continuous chirr of many more
millions of insects.
I slept that night on the cartel, which is a light hardwood frame,
closely strung lengthwise and across with rimpi, or thin strips of hide,
and which, slung to the framework of the interior of the wagon, under
the tent, serves as a bedstead. Upon this, if furnished with a
mattress, a pillow, and a pair of blankets--as in my own case--it is
possible to enjoy a perfect night's rest. The next morning we were all
astir with the dawn, and while the "boys" prepared breakfast I made my
way down to the spruit, bathed, with the dogs for company, and got back
to the wagon just in good time for the first meal of the day, with an
appetite to which a keen edge had been put by the fresh, clean air of
the open veld. Then, immediately after breakfast, the oxen were
inspanned, and, pushing forward a little more rapidly than on the first
day, we forded the Great Fish River shortly after noon before
outspanning for the midday halt.
In this fashion, then, we journeyed, day after day, quietly and
uneventfully, toward Port Elizabeth, where we arrived without mishap
during the afternoon of the ninth day after leaving Bella Vista.
Leaving the wagon outspanned on the outskirts of the town, I rode in and
called in the first instance upon a certain Mr Henderson, who was a
friend of ours, and from him received, as I fully expected, a very
cordial invitation to make his house my home during the period of my
sojourn in the town. The following day was a busy day with me, for I
had a great many commissions to execute; but by arranging them
systematically I contrived to wipe the whole of them off my list before
the stores closed, including even the purchase of the new rifle which I
had promised myself. This was a very expensive but beautiful weapon,
very light compared with my old rifle, for it weighed, all complete and
including the shoulder strap, less than six pounds. It had a plain blue
cylindrical barrel, gauged to take a half-inch spherical bullet with
three drachms of powder, was fitted with a nipple for percussion caps,
and provided with a fixed sight for a range of one hundred yards and two
flap sights for two hundred and five hundred yards respectively, the
latter being regarded in those days as an exceptionally long range.
Also, with a normal pull upon the trigger of six ounces, it was fitted
with an ingenious arrangement which, by pressing a small lever,
converted this into a hair trigger. Lastly, it bore the name of a
certain famous London maker, which alone was a guarantee of its
excellence. The storekeeper from whom I bought it had other guns by the
same maker, and he finally tempted me to buy a very beautiful
double-barrel sporting gun as a present for my father, the right hand
barrel being a Number 12 smooth-bore, while the left barrel was rifled,
this piece also being fitted for use with percussion caps.
The next day, which was the eleventh day from that of my departure from
Bella Vista, immediately after breakfast I rode out to the wagon, gave
orders to inspan, and accompanied it into the town, where, having
unloaded my hides and horns, which I had disposed of at a very good
price, I proceeded to load up the powder, lead, and other things that I
had been charged to procure, and left Port Elizabeth again on my return
journey about mid-afternoon, trekking a distance of ten miles on my
homeward way before outspanning for the night.
Of course I was all on fire for an opportunity to try my new rifle, and
the chance came that same afternoon. For when about six miles out from
Port Elizabeth, I met a Boer who was trekking in from Uitenhage, and who
informed me that, about a mile back, he had been obliged to abandon one
of his oxen in a dying condition; and, sure enough, a quarter of an hour
later we saw the poor beast lying by the side of the road, with the
aasvogels, or vultures, already gathered about it. A round dozen or
more were squatted on the ground in a circle round the dying ox, while
others, mere specks in the deep--blue sky, were winging their way to it
from all quarters. The method of these new arrivals was to maintain
their lofty flight until they arrived immediately above their destined
prey; then they would begin to circle slowly downward in a wide spiral,
finally hovering for some three or four seconds at a height of about
twenty yards before awkwardly settling upon the ground. This was my
chance; an aasvogel more or less in South Africa mattered nothing, there
were plenty of them and to spare, and they were such disgusting
creatures that I had no compunction at all about abandoning my usual
rule, and shooting one or two of them merely in order to test my new
weapon. And a very good test they afforded too, for although their
downward sailing upon outstretched, motionless wings was a perfectly
steady movement, it was rather deceptive as to speed, and, the movement
being a circling one, it was necessary to fire at exactly the right
instant, or the range would be wrong and a miss would result.
I decided to begin the test by firing at a descending vulture at what
was supposed to be the extreme range of accuracy of the weapon, namely,
five hundred yards; and as this was a good long distance--quite far
enough to enable the bird to swerve at the flash and so cause me to
miss--I came to the conclusion that the right thing to do would be to
allow the vulture to sweep past until it was flying away from me, and
then pull the trigger. Accordingly I loaded the piece, threw up the
five-hundred-yard sight, and then walked forward, choosing a particular
bird as I did so, and following it with my eye until I judged it to be
at the right distance and position; then I flung up the rifle, pressed
it firmly to my shoulder, covered the vulture with the sights, and
fired. The next second I saw the feathers fly, the great wings flapped
once, convulsively, and as the "smack" of the bullet reached my ears the
bird turned a complete somersault in the air and fell to the ground
stone-dead, to the accompaniment of loud shouts of wonder and admiration
from my Totties.
Needless to say, I was vastly proud of my achievement, for it was far
and away the longest shot that I had ever attempted. But instead of
being satisfied with my success, I must needs attempt something still
more difficult. Flapping down the back sight, and entirely dispensing
with its use, I reloaded the weapon and determined to rely upon my eye
and my judgment alone, or, in other words, upon that faculty which, by
constant use, had become a sort of instinct with me. Accordingly I
selected as a mark another vulture which had been in the act of
descending, but which, apparently alarmed at the unusual manner in which
its predecessor had accomplished the last part of its descent, was now
wheeling slowly round at a height of, as I estimated, fully eight
hundred yards above the earth. Training my rifle upon it, I followed
the movements of the bird until it had wheeled away from me, when,
carefully judging the amount of elevation required, I pressed the
trigger, and was delighted the next moment again to see the feathers
fly, to note the convulsive stroke of the great pinions which indicated
a hit, and to see the ponderous bulk of the bird come hurtling
earthward. It was a magnificent shot--I felt that I was justified in
admitting that much to myself--and it satisfied me that, even now, at
the beginning of my acquaintance with my new rifle, I was as much master
of it as I was of my old one, and could rely upon it as implicitly. I
felt that I had no need to test its capabilities further; but I once
more loaded it and, walking to where the dying ox was lying, with the
circle of vultures closing in around it, put the foul birds to flight,
with many a croak of protest from them at my interference, placed the
muzzle of the weapon at the ear of the ox, pulled the trigger, and put
the poor beast out of its misery, besides saving it from the possibility
of attack by the ravenous birds before the breath had entirely left its
body. Three miles farther on we outspanned for the night.
The return journey--until its last stage--was as uneventful as the
outward one had been. For the first three days we met, on an average,
half a dozen wagons a day, trekking to Port Elizabeth from various farms
in the outlying districts; but after that they became less numerous, and
after the fifth day we met no more, nor did I call at any farms--which,
at that length from the Bay, were few and far between--although we
occasionally sighted one in the distance to the right or left of the
track we were following.
On the twentieth day after my departure from Bella Vista, about an hour
after we had inspanned for the day's trek, which was to end with our
arrival home shortly before sunset, as we topped a slight rise the kopje
or hill upon which the house stood swung into view for the first time
since I had lost sight of it some three weeks earlier; but it was still
at such a distance that, with the house turning its shadowed face to me,
I could not distinguish it with the naked eye, and it happened that upon
that particular occasion I had forgotten to put into the voorkissie, or
wagon chest, upon which the driver generally sits, the telescope that I
usually carried with me upon such excursions. Nevertheless I knew that
my people would be expecting my return on that day; therefore, when we
outspanned about midday, instead of lighting only one fire, for the
purpose of cooking our midday meal, I caused three to be lighted, at a
distance of about one hundred feet apart, which was my usual method of
advertising my impending arrival, feeling sure that somebody about the
house would be on the lookout, and would see the three sparks of flame
and columns of smoke, we being by that time within some ten miles of the
place. At this distance I was generally able, in clear weather, to
distinguish the long, white front wall of the house standing out against
the purple shadows of the Great Winter Berg range, but on this occasion
I could not, although the day was as fine and the air as clear as usual
at that time of the year. Yet, strangely enough, the circumstance did
not strike me as being in the least peculiar or significant, although
Piet, my after-rider, made some passing reference to it. Later on in
the afternoon, however, when we had again inspanned, and had been
trekking for about an hour, it began to dawn upon me that things were
not quite as usual at Bella Vista. In the first place, of all our
flocks and herds which should have been grazing somewhere on the plain
or the foothills ahead, not a horn or a hoof was to be seen. Also, the
house looked different: it had the appearance of being not as high as
usual; I could not see the grey thatch of its roof; and the walls,
instead of being pure white, as they had been when 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 waddling slowly and heavily to and fro. Half
a dozen paces farther on Prince suddenly shied so violently that he
almost unseated me, as a loud flapping of wings and a great croaking
arose on my right, and some fifteen of the obscene birds rose heavily
into the air and winged their way a hundred yards or so farther up the
garden before again settling.
The pathway was bordered, from the house to the gateway, with a hedge of
flowering shrubs, backed on either side by rows of peach trees; and it
was impossible for me to see from the path what lay beyond those peach
trees. I therefore dismounted, and, throwing the reins to the ground,
so that Prince might not walk away to the stable, forced my way through
the hedge and the rows of peach trees into the more open part of the
garden; and there I beheld what I was by this time fully prepared to
see, but what was nevertheless a sight revolting beyond all possibility
of description. I will not enter into unnecessary details, but will
simply say that scattered about here and there all over that part of the
garden lay the disfigured remains of some sixty or seventy Tembu
warriors--they were easily identifiable by the shape of their shields
and spears and the general character of their war equipment--who had
evidently been shot down during a most determined and pertinacious
attack upon the house. The other half of the front portion of the
garden presented a similar sight, the whole bearing mute but indubitable
testimony not only to the implacable determination of the savages but
also to the resolution of the defenders. Yes, the worst had happened:
the house had been attacked and finally destroyed, notwithstanding the
desperate nature of the defence put up by its inmates; and now--my
mother and father, and good old Jack Nesbitt, where were they?
To discover the answer to this momentous question was my next task, and
how shall I find words to describe the passion of grief and apprehension
with which I set about it? It must go undescribed, for there are
certain emotions of the human heart and mind which mere words are
powerless to portray. Perhaps it is well that this should be the case,
for no one who has not passed through such an experience as mine could
possibly understand what I endured as I made my slow way toward the
ruined house, subconsciously noting, as I went, the evidences which met
me on every hand of the protracted, stubborn implacability of the
attack, and the resolute, unyielding character of the defence. The
savages had indeed succeeded, but at what a cost! As I made my way up
through that shambles of a wrecked garden I acquired a new impression of
the invincible courage of the South African native which I have never
since had occasion to modify.
In the face of such evidence of deadly resolution on the part of the
combatants on both sides as I beheld all round me, I felt that it was
hopeless to dream of the possibility that the inmates of the house had
made good their escape at the last moment, for clearly the building had
been completely surrounded, and the attack simultaneously delivered on
all sides. The question was, had they finally met death on the points
of the enemy's spears, or had they fallen alive into that enemy's hands?
I shuddered with greater horror than ever as the latter possibility
occurred to me, for I had not lived nearly sixteen years in South Africa
without hearing something of the unspeakable barbarities inflicted by
the savages upon those unhappy beings who chanced to be taken alive in
battle by them. Better a thousand times--ay, ten thousand times--that
my dear ones should perish quickly in the heat and excitement of the
fight than that they should survive to be carried off to suffer--! I
put the thought from me, for I felt that I should go mad if I permitted
my mind to dwell upon it.
Yet it thrust itself persistently upon me again and again as I
approached the smoke-blackened walls of the ruined building and gazed
with horrified eyes at the constantly accumulating evidences of the
desperate character of the attack and defence. I believed I could
pretty accurately picture what had happened. My father had evidently
not been taken entirely by surprise, or there would not have been so
many dead savages lying around the house: he had probably obtained an
inkling of what was toward in time to put the building into some sort of
state of defence; possibly he had found time to barricade the doors and
windows, and from the general aspect of things outside I surmised that
he had somehow contrived to get half a dozen or more of the Totties into
the house to assist in its defence.
The attack had probably occurred about two or three o'clock in the
morning, when the whites might be expected to be sound asleep, and from
the appearance of the slain I believed that it had taken place about
thirty-six hours before my arrival on the scene. In any case the attack
was unwisely planned, from the native point of view, for it was about
the time of full moon, and the South African night, with a full moon
riding high in the sky, is almost literally as light as day, and the
defenders, being doubtless on the qui vive, would perceive the first
stealthy approach of the savages and at once open fire upon them. And I
knew enough about my father's and Nesbitt's marksmanship to feel assured
that every time they pressed a trigger an enemy would fall. But even
their deadly skill with the rifle would not account for the many bodies
lying round the house, and thus I was brought to the conclusion that
some of the Totties, armed with shot guns loaded with loopers, or slugs,
must have assisted in the defence. Time after time the enemy must have
charged toward the house, and time after time must they have been driven
back from those stout stone walls and barricaded doors and windows by
the withering volleys of lead poured into them at close range. But the
weak point of Bella Vista was its thatched roof, which was the universal
form of covering to every farmhouse at that day, on account of its
coolness. It was, however, easily capable of being set fire to, and in
all probability the Kafirs, after being several times repulsed, had made
a concerted rush, in the course of which they had succeeded in hurling
several spears, with bunches of burning grass attached to them, into the
thatch, where they had remained, setting the roof on fire. Then, as the
house was only a one-storey building, it would quickly fill with smoke,
and the inmates would be faced with the alternatives of suffocating,
being burnt to death beneath the blazing roof when it should fall in, or
yielding themselves to the tender mercies of the ferocious Tembu. I
thought I knew which of the alternatives my father would choose,
provided, of course, that he survived long enough to avail himself of
the choice; but did he? That was the question, and--merciful heaven! if
he did not, what had become of my mother?
Frenzied at the thought of what her fate might be if she had fallen
alive into the hands of the savages, I dashed up the front steps to the
stoep, clubbing my rifle and striking out right and left at the gorged
aasvogels congregated there, which seemed disposed to resent my
intrusion. And as I mounted to the top step I at once perceived that I
had now arrived at the spot where the fight had raged most fiercely and
stubbornly, for the ornamental guard rail and one of the veranda posts
were broken-down, the climbing roses which had been trained to screen
the railing were crushed and trodden into the earth, and the whole stoep
was choked with the bodies of Tembu warriors who had evidently met death
in a desperate attempt to force their way into the house through the
barricaded doors and windows.
But the barricades no longer existed, having evidently been consumed in
the conflagration that followed the collapse of the flaming roof, and
now only the charred and blackened remnants of the door and window
frames remained; beyond them appeared a small heap of white ashes, among
which could be detected here and there a few fragments of what had once
been picture frames, the metal-work of furniture, or the unconsumed end
of a roof timber. With a strong effort of will I compelled myself to
pass through one of the window openings, and entered what had been the
drawing-room. A strong odour of fire still clung to the place, but
there was not much debris, for the room had been by no means crowded
with furniture. I was obliged to pick my way with care, for the floor
was burned completely through in some places, while in others it was so
deeply charred that my feet broke through upon encountering them. I
persevered, however, for near the middle of the room I perceived a mound
of ashes of exceedingly suggestive shape and dimensions, and I was
anxious to ascertain what lay beneath. And, combating the almost
invincible repugnance to close investigation which seized me, I
presently discovered that the heap concealed, as I had suspected, a
half-consumed human body, so dreadfully disfigured that it was only with
the utmost difficulty I presently succeeded in identifying it as the
remains of a Tottie. The metal blade and shank of a Tembu spear--the
wooden shaft of which had been consumed by fire--transfixed the throat,
and my father's roer, with its stock deeply charred, was still grasped
in what remained of the left hand. It was the only body in the room.
From this room I passed into the hall. This was in a similar condition
to that of the drawing-room, except that it contained the remains of two
bodies, one close to the doorway and the other at the point where the
passage leading from the rear entrance of the building opened upon the
hall. The body near the front doorway I identified as that of Nesbitt--
by the watch which was lying close beside it, and which, I noticed, had
stopped at twenty-three minutes after six--while the other body was
quite unrecognisable. There was nothing to show how either of these men
had died.
Leaving the hall, I entered the dining-room; and the moment I did so it
became apparent that I had arrived upon the scene of the last stand of
the little garrison, where the final phase of the stubborn and
protracted attack and defence had been fought out. For the room was in
a terrible state of confusion, the scattered remains of the heavy
furniture showing that the savages had actually succeeded in forcing the
barricade and gaining an entrance--this evidence being confirmed by the
presence of nine Tembu corpses piled up in the window opening. And
within arm's length of them lay another corpse--that of my father, still
grasping in his right hand the trusty cavalry sabre that had served him
so well in his campaigning days, while his left held a pistol. Three
Tembu spearheads in his body, one of which had evidently passed through
his heart, told how he had died. A few feet away, right up against the
front wall, I noticed a pile of scorched, brittle stuff that, as I
cautiously probed it with the barrel of my rifle, proved to be burnt
rugs. The three upper layers were burnt to a cinder, but the fourth was
only scorched, while the last was scarcely singed; and beneath this lay
the body of my mother, the flesh slightly darkened by the smoke of the
burnt woollen rugs, but otherwise not disfigured at all. A bullet hole
in the very centre of her forehead told me all that I wanted to know;
and while I cast myself on my knees in the ashes beside that beloved
form, a tempest of dry sobs rending my bosom as I realised for the first
time all that I had lost, I felt thankful that my father had found the
courage and resolution at the last moment to save her, even though by
such dreadful means, from falling alive into the hands of the fiendishly
ferocious Tembu.
In the remaining rooms I found seven more corpses, all of them being
those of Totties, who had either perished in defending the house or had
died of suffocation. And nowhere but in the dining-room had the savages
ever succeeded in gaining even a temporary footing, while the general
appearance of the ruins showed that they had not entered after the
flames had died out; indeed, I doubted whether they had even deferred
their departure until then, for they must have known at last that
nothing could possibly have survived in that furnace of flame, and with
the whites all slain and the house ablaze, there was no reason why they
should desire to enter it, for the fire would effectually destroy
everything in the shape of plunder. But they had driven off the whole
of the live stock, and that alone should have satisfied them.
I do not know how long I remained on my knees beside the corpse of my
mother in that fire-seared, bloodstained dining-room, plunged into a
very stupor of grief; but I remember that I was at length aroused by the
distant sounds of a cracking whip and the screams of Jan, the Hottentot
driver, to his oxen, announcing the approach of the wagon; and, looking
about me, I discovered that the sun had already set, and that darkness
was fast closing down upon the scene. Then I rose to my feet, and,
leaving the ruined house, made my way down the path to where Prince
still stood patiently awaiting my return, with the dogs Thunder and Juno
crouching upon the ground before him; and, flinging the bridle over his
head, I climbed into the saddle and rode slowly forth to meet the wagon.
I came to it at a distance of about half a mile from the broken-down
gate at the garden entrance, and ordered the others to outspan where
they were, water the oxen, and turn them loose to graze. Then I briefly
acquainted Jan, the driver, and Piet, my after-rider, with what had
happened, strictly forbade the former to go up to the house--though
there was little need for that, for I doubt whether anything would have
induced the fellow to go near the place after nightfall--and ordered
Piet to accompany me, as it was my intention to ride on to Mr
Lestrange's place, to see whether he and his had escaped a similar
visitation, and, if so, to beg shelter for the night and his presence
and help on the following day while I performed the last sad offices for
my beloved dead.
I am now an old man, for my age already exceeds the limit allotted by
the Psalmist as the length of man's life, but the memory of that night
ride, and my heart-breaking burden of grief as I stared out unseeingly
upon the fast-darkening landscape, allowing Prince to find his own way
and travel his own pace while I dwelt upon the harrowing scenes which I
had so recently beheld, and began to realise the full extent of my
irreparable loss, will never leave me; it is as fresh to-day as it was
at that moment, and so I know it will continue to be until I die. Yet,
keenly as I suffered, I frequently found myself wondering why I did not
suffer still more keenly; for after I had progressed a mile or two on my
way the sky to the eastward brightened, and presently the moon, two days
past the full, sailed up over the far-distant horizon, flooding the
scene with mystic radiance, and, all unknowingly, I reined up to gaze
upon the entrancing scene. Yes, even at that moment, with the dry sobs
bursting from my aching bosom; with my dead mother's face floating
before my eyes, her lovely features placid and smiling in death, as I
had beheld them only one short hour before; with the figure of my dead
father lying outstretched among the ashes of his ruined home, his body
pierced with the spears of the enemy, his weapons still tightly grasped
in his clenched hands, and his sightless eyes still glaring defiance at
the foe, I could pause to gaze upon the beauty of a South African
moonrise! I could not understand it then; I was surprised and horrified
at what I stigmatised as my callous heartlessness: but I know now that a
merciful Providence has so ordered matters that when human suffering,
whether mental or physical, reaches a certain degree of acuteness,
partial insensibility sets in--I have known cases where men have slept
while being subjected to the most awful tortures--and such was
undoubtedly the case with me on that memorable night. My sensibility
had become so benumbed that I had partially lost control of my mental
processes, and my thoughts broke away at intervals to dwell for a few
moments upon some entirely trivial matter which, one would have
supposed, could not possibly have had the slightest interest for me,
under the circumstances. Yet so it was; and in that curious, detached,
semi-conscious frame of mind I covered the fourteen miles of veld that
lay between Bella Vista and Triannon, most of it at a walking pace,
coming in sight of the house about nine o'clock at night.