MAFEKING
On the 20th of April, Yorke was sent for by Lord Roberts. "I suppose
you are almost tired of remaining quiet, Mr. Harberton," he said with a
smile.
"I shall certainly be glad when we are off, sir. But I am by no means
sorry for a rest after being on horseback for six months. But I am
perfectly ready to go anywhere if I can be of service."
"What do you say to a ride to Kimberley?"
"I am quite ready to go, sir; though I hope to be back with you when
you advance."
Lord Roberts shook his head. "I hope to be away before you get back. I
have some despatches for you to carry. The wires are so frequently cut
by the Boers that I cannot trust to them in a matter of importance.
They relate to an expedition that is being prepared for the relief
of Mafeking. Lord Methuen is confronted by so strong a force of
Boers--doubtless a portion of Cronje's force, which moved north with
the guns--that he cannot go forward. Colonel Plumer in the north has
not a sufficient force to fight his way in. Therefore profound secrecy
is necessary with regard to the route of a force with which Lord
Methuen and I hope to relieve the town. It is for this reason that I
dare not trust to the wire. You have done good service, Mr. Harberton,
and if you like I will attach you to the force, which will start in
ten days or so. And if all goes well, you will be at Mafeking, and
will have time to rejoin me, say at Johannesburg, before I advance on
Pretoria. I cannot expect my progress to be very rapid, for although I
do not anticipate any serious resistance on the part of the Boers, I
shall have to make halts to enable the supplies to come up. And as the
party you will go with will travel fast, I do not think that, if all
goes well, you will be many days behind me at Johannesburg."
"Thank you very much, sir! If I cannot be with you, I should above all
things like to be at the relief of Mafeking."
"The despatches will be ready for you this evening," the general said.
"You can start with them as early as you like. I hope that your usual
good luck will again attend you."
Yorke bowed and retired. He had no doubt that Lord Roberts would, as
before, turn the Boers out of their positions by flanking movements,
and that if a great battle were fought, it would be close to Pretoria,
and he felt delighted at the thought of being with an expedition which
the general evidently believed was likely to effect the relief of
Mafeking.
That town had, since the day of the declaration of war by the Boers,
been a cause of no little anxiety. As time went on, and the garrison
continued to defend themselves heroically, the feeling at home
heightened, until every scrap of news that came through was regarded
with as much interest as the more important operations of the army.
Mafeking was a small town, and was chiefly known in Britain as the
place from which the Jameson raid had started. It was the nearest point
of the western railway to Pretoria, and was within a few miles of the
Transvaal frontier. Unlike Kimberley, it contained no garrison of
regular troops, the force consisting only of three hundred and forty
men of the Protectorate Regiment, one hundred and seventy Police, and
two hundred Volunteers. But fortunately, early in July, the military
authorities at Cape Town had appointed Colonel Baden-Powell to organize
a force of irregulars, both for the purpose of preventing any native
rising in case of war, and as far as possible to defend the eastern
border. The difficulty of such a task, owing to the extreme length of
the frontier, had been recognized at once; and a better man could not
have been chosen for the task. Baden-Powell had, a year before, taken a
conspicuous part in the campaign against the Matabele; and before the
outbreak began, had organized the Protectorate Regiment; while, under
his orders, Colonel Plumer had raised a regiment in Rhodesia.
He saw that Mafeking was certain to be the first point of attack. It
was but a hundred and fifty miles from Pretoria, and was the route
through which the Boers would naturally pour into the colony, where the
population was largely Dutch. He had chosen as his chief of staff Major
Lord Edward Cecil, who arrived at the town on October 1, 1899, and set
to work to prepare the town for defence, with Captain Williams and
Captain Fitz-Clarence, Lord Charles Bentinck, and other officers.
The military authorities had sent up a certain amount of stores. These
were quite inadequate for the purpose, and Baden-Powell and Lord Cecil
took upon themselves the responsibility of ordering far larger supplies
to be forwarded. They might have failed in obtaining these had it not
been for the patriotism of Messrs. Weil & Co., one of the largest firms
in South Africa. These accepted the order, although quite aware that
the prices of all goods were advancing enormously, and furnished the
supplies asked for. And thus the store of provisions was accumulated
that enabled Mafeking to hold out for so many months.
But the requisitions for guns was not so promptly complied with. The
Africander government of Cape Colony, whose sympathies were wholly with
the Transvaal, pretended to doubt that there was any probability of
war, and refused to send up the guns, and when at the last moment half
a dozen small pieces of artillery were forwarded, they arrived too late
and were unable to enter the place.
On Baden-Powell's arrival he organized the town guard, consisting of
all white inhabitants capable of carrying guns, and even boys of from
fourteen to sixteen were formed into a cadet corps for orderly duty. An
armoured train was constructed and armed with a Maxim and Nordenfeldt,
and mines were laid in a circle round the town.
Already several large commandos of Boers had appeared on the frontier,
and whatever might be the opinion elsewhere, at Mafeking there was no
question whatever that these men were only waiting for the declaration
of war by Kruger to attack the town. On the day after the expiration
of the time named in Kruger's ultimatum the railway was torn up
forty miles south of the town, and an armoured train, bringing two
seven-pounders for Mafeking, was thrown off the rails, and an artillery
fire opened upon it. The officer who, with twenty men, was escorting
the train, defended himself valiantly for five hours, but was then
obliged to surrender. This was the first blood shed in the war.
The Boers had doubtless expected to enter the town with scarce any
resistance. They were five thousand in number, and knew from their
sympathizers in the place that, including the town guard, its defenders
amounted to only nine hundred men, with two seven-pounder guns and
six machine-guns. The difficulties of the besieged lay chiefly in the
fact that Mafeking, though but a small town, was scattered over a very
large area, and that the defences were naturally erected some distance
outside the circuit. These defences were planned by Colonel Vyvyan and
Major Panzera.
Two days after the declaration of war the Boers appeared before
Mafeking, and drove in the pickets round the town. The armoured train
and a squadron of the Protectorate Regiment went out and drove back
the Boers. Great numbers of the enemy hurried up and cut off the
party, but another squadron and a seven-pounder went out and opened
a passage into the town. The loss was about two killed and fourteen
wounded, while the Boers suffered much more heavily. Two days later
the Boers opened fire on the town with two twelve-pounder guns, and
in another four days Cronje sent in a messenger with the summons:
"Surrender to avoid bloodshed"; to which Powell replied, "When is
bloodshed going to begin?" Two or three days later the Boers brought up
a ninety-six-pounder, and the bombardment began in earnest.
On the 27th a sortie was made; one of the Boer trenches was carried,
the Boers were driven out with a loss of a hundred men, while we had
six killed and eleven wounded. About half the Boers who fell were
killed by the bayonet, and consequently this weapon was throughout the
siege regarded with a wholesome dread by the besiegers. There were
now, in addition to the ninety-six-pounder, five seven-pounders, one
ten-pounder, and two twelve-pounders playing on the town, and yet the
damage done was so slight that on the day after the sortie there was a
concert at the hotel, the officers all attending in fighting costume,
in readiness to rush out in case the Boers attacked.
Bomb-proof shelters were dug, everyone kept in good spirits, and
Baden-Powell sent out the cheerful message, "All well. Four hours'
bombardment; one dog killed." Another summons to surrender was answered
with the message, "Tell General Cronje that I will let him know when we
have had enough."
Two assaults were made, but they were both repulsed with loss, although
one of them was pushed with great energy against an old fort which was
the key to our position. It was held by Colonel Walford and men of the
South African Police. The attack was covered by the fire of four guns
and the ninety-six-pounder. The Boers fought well, and pushed up to
within three hundred yards of the little fort, but were repulsed with
heavy loss. We had two officers, Captain the Hon. D.H. Marshall and
Captain Pechell, among the six killed. Various skirmishes followed,
but the siege languished until, on the 18th of November, Cronje left
to take command of the force assembling to oppose the advance of Lord
Methuen. Commandant Snyman succeeded to his post.
Things went on quietly until a great sortie was made on 26th
December. The object was to attack a post called Game Tree Fort. The
storming-party was composed of eighty men and six officers. Captain
Vernon of the Protectorate Regiment was in command. Supported by
a considerable force and by guns playing on the enemy to distract
their attention, the storming-party dashed forward. Many fell as they
advanced, but they pushed forward till they reached the fort, which
was composed of sand-bags. These stood up like a wall, and no efforts
of the men sufficed to enable them to scale it, whereas from loopholes
left between the bags a murderous fire was maintained. Captains Vernon,
Sandford, and Paton were killed, Captain Fitz-Clarence wounded, and
Lieutenants Swinburne and Bridges alone escaped the deadly fire and led
back the survivors of the little storming-party. Twenty-one had fallen,
and four of those carried off were found to be mortally wounded.
After this there was a long period of inaction. The bombardment was
continued, Snyman, in spite of the protests of Baden-Powell, continuing
to throw shells into the nunnery and the women's laager, until the
colonel ordered a number of the Boer prisoners to be also confined
there. Occasionally a message was got through, and, carefully as the
provisions were doled out, the gallant commander at last informed
General Roberts that by the 20th of May the stock would absolutely come
to an end, and that he could not hold out beyond that date.
On 17th April, seeing that the force from Rhodesia under Colonel Plumer
was not sufficiently strong to fight its way through, and that the
expedition that had been sent there by way of Beira could hardly, in
spite of the tremendous exertions that were being made, be depended
upon to join Plumer in time, Lord Roberts ordered that a flying column
of mounted troops, under the command of Colonel Mahon of the 8th
Hussars, should start from Kimberley not later than the 4th of May.
Yorke, after leaving Lord Roberts, at once returned to his quarters and
told his host that he was going to Kimberley, and should probably not
return to Bloemfontein, but should rejoin the army on its way up the
country.
"Are you going to take your man with you?"
"No, sir, I shall have to travel fast, and may have to ride for my
life. I shall take my best horse. If you will kindly allow me to leave
the other in your stable, my man can bring him on when the army moves."
"That I will gladly do, but you must let me lend you a better mount
than the one you are taking. I have two in my stable of which you
can take your choice. I think either of them is as good as any in
the state--or, I should say, in the colony, as, since your general's
proclamation, we are all British subjects."
"I could not think of accepting your kind offer, sir."
"But I insist upon it, Mr. Harberton. Indeed you will be doing me a
service, for since the war began I have had no use for my horses at
all, and they sadly want exercise. A month's hard work will be of real
benefit to the animal; and I should benefit too, for time was when I
did not mind how fiery a horse was, but now that I am getting on in
life I am not fond of having to fight with my mount."
"I am extremely obliged to you, sir; but I do not see how I shall be
able to send it back again to you."
"When you get to Johannesburg you can leave it with Mr. Chambers,
he and I will arrange how it is to be returned. In fact, as soon as
matters are settled down I shall certainly go there myself. Do not let
that trouble you in any way."
Yorke gratefully accepted the offer. Both of his own horses had felt
the hard work to which they had been subjected, that which Hans rode
more than his own; for the latter had been kept hard at work since
their arrival at Bloemfontein, and was certainly not fit to start on a
journey of many hundred miles. Both horses could, without difficulty,
go on at the rate the army was likely to advance, especially after
having another ten days' rest at Bloemfontein.
Hans and Peter were both disappointed when they heard that they were
not to accompany Yorke. But Hans himself, who throughout had taken
great care of the horses, admitted that these were not fit to start
on so long a journey. Accordingly the next morning at daybreak Yorke
started alone on the horse that had been lent to him. The distance
between Bloemfontein and Kimberley was somewhat under a hundred miles,
and this was traversed in two days, Yorke riding only forty miles the
first day, as he felt that it would not do to push the animal too hard
immediately after being so long without work. He did not hesitate to
complete the remaining part of the journey on the second day, as he
knew that the horse would have at least a week's rest before starting
again. It was a splendid animal, superior even to that which had been
killed at the time when he was taken prisoner on his way to Belmont,
and as it stretched out in a gallop under him he felt that he could
ride anywhere across country without fear of being overtaken by any
party of Boers he might meet.
On his arrival at Kimberley he handed his despatches to Colonel Mahon,
to whom he was instructed to deliver them if Lord Methuen was still at
Boshof.
"I have brought despatches for you, sir," he said as he entered that
officer's head-quarters. "Lord Roberts informed me that if, as he
supposed, Lord Methuen was still at Boshof, I was to hand them to you,
as they relate entirely to the force you are preparing. I have the
honour to be one of the commander-in-chief's extra aides-de-camp. My
name is Harberton."
"We have all heard of you, Mr. Harberton," the colonel said as he
opened the despatches. "Your journey to Kimberley, and your adventurous
escape from Pretoria, have made your name familiar to us all."
When he glanced through the despatches he said: "I am glad to see that
you are to accompany me till we get to Mafeking. Our arrangements are
going on most satisfactorily, and I have no doubt that we shall be
in a position to start on the day named. Now, you must be famishing
after your ride, though, I suppose, as an old hand, you did not leave
Bloemfontein without some provision for the journey. I will tell my
orderly to put your horse up at once. Dinner will be ready downstairs
in half an hour; they always keep a table for me and my officers."
The dinner at the hotel bore few signs of the long siege. Supplies had
been got up, and some of the principal inhabitants had returned, and
though at Bloemfontein things had been well managed and comfortable,
the style in which meals were served was very inferior to that which
had already been attained at Kimberley. Some ten or twelve officers
joined Colonel Mahon's party. No allusion whatever was made to the
intended expedition, which was kept a profound secret, as even at
Kimberley there were many Boer sympathizers, and it was all-important
that no rumour of the approaching departure of a large body of horse
should be known to them. It was to consist of the Imperial Light Horse,
which had arrived from Natal, the Kimberley mounted corps, the Diamond
Field Horse, a party of Imperial Yeomanry, and a detachment of the Cape
Police, a horse artillery battery with four guns and two machine-guns,
a hundred men of the Fusiliers to guard the waggons, fifty-two waggons
with ten mules each, and a number of spare horses to take the place of
any that might break down. The force amounted in all to twelve hundred
men. Not even to the officers who commanded the different corps was
their destination made known until the morning of the 4th of May, when
the force had ridden out from Kimberley.
Yorke had placed himself altogether under Colonel Mahon's orders,
and had looked after many of the details connected with the waggons
and provisions. The store of food carried was quite enough to last
fourteen days, this being the outside limit of the time that the march
was likely to occupy. Once off there was no delay. The mules and the
waggons did their work well, and the force moved round to the west
of the position of a large body of Boers, who were opposing Methuen's
advance by the line of railway, and on the 9th marched into Vryburg,
having done a hundred and twenty miles in five days. They halted here
for a day to rest the animals, and on the 11th they started again.
Hitherto not a shot had been fired. From this point they were watched
by the enemy, as their arrival at Vryburg had been at once notified
to the Boers, and at Koodoosrand a force was found posted in a strong
position in front of them.
Mahon, whose object was not to fight but to relieve Mafeking, moved off
to the westward; but here the country was found to be thickly covered
with bush, which greatly impeded the progress of the waggons, and
presently the enemy, leaving their position, threw themselves across
his path. There was a sharp but short encounter, and the Boers were
soon in flight. The casualties in killed and wounded on our side were
only thirty.
On the 15th the relieving column arrived at a village twenty miles
to the west of Mafeking, where, within an hour of their entry, they
were joined by Plumer's force, which had just been strengthened by the
arrival of four twelve-pounder guns of the Canadian artillery, and a
party of Queenslanders.
These troops had performed a marvellous march. On their arrival from
Canada and Queensland respectively they had been brought round by ship
to Beira, carried by train to the plateau of Rhodesia, from there in
vehicles a hundred miles to Buluwayo, then by train over four hundred
miles to Ootsi, and had then pushed on on foot for four days over
terribly bad roads at the rate of twenty-five miles a day, and had been
with Plumer only a few hours.
There was no fear now that they would fail to gain the success they
had striven for, as their united force was stronger than that with
which Snyman could oppose them. The Boer commander, however, would not
retire without one last effort, and he planted his force on a hill
which commanded the water supply; but after he had held his ground for
an hour, his guns were silenced, and he retired past Mafeking to the
trenches on the eastern side. Here, however, the Boers had no rest, for
Baden-Powell sallied out with his garrison, and Mahon's guns opened
upon them, so that ere long they withdrew and retreated eastward.
Mafeking was free at last! Only six days before, fearing doubtless that
relief would come ere long, and possibly hearing that a large cavalry
force was nearing Vryburg, the Boers made the most determined attempt
to capture Mafeking that had occurred during the siege. Early on the
morning of the 12th three hundred volunteers, under the command of
Eloff, a grandson of Kruger, crept up to the west of the besiegers'
line and reached the native quarters, to which they at once set fire.
The barracks of the Protectorate Regiment were held by Hore and some
twenty of his men. These, after a stout defence, were compelled to
surrender. Two other positions within the line were captured, and had
Snyman sent up his support at once, affairs might have ended badly;
but this failed to arrive. The telephone and telegraph wires called up
the defenders from all parts of the town. These gradually surrounded
the positions the Boers had taken, and prevented any reinforcements
from reaching them. Knowing that unless aided they must surrender in
time, Baden-Powell refused to allow the loss of life that must ensue
if the Boers were attacked, and contented himself with preventing them
from being reinforced, and at seven in the evening Eloff, finding his
position desperate, surrendered.
The defence of Mafeking ranks with that of Ladysmith in the
stubbornness of the resistance which it, an open town, made against a
powerful enemy, and is the more remarkable inasmuch as the garrison
consisted entirely of irregulars, with but two or three guns of the
smallest calibre, while the enemy had far more numerous and powerful
artillery. For six months the little garrison had maintained an
unflinching defence, during which time their spirits, and it may be
said their gaiety, never flagged under any privation, hardship, or work.
The service they rendered the country is beyond computation; for they
had detained throughout the early months of the siege five thousand
men, who would otherwise have been carrying fire and sword throughout
the Colony, and causing a general rising among the Dutch population,
who were only waiting for the fall of Mafeking and the arrival of their
friends to take up arms. Pressed as the garrison had been, they were
in better condition than the inhabitants of Ladysmith when that town
was relieved. The arrangements had all been admirable. Horse-flesh and
horse-soup had been served out regularly. Oats had largely entered
into the rations. A certain allowance of oat flour was served out,
and porridge was made from bran, by mixing the sifting of the husks
with water, letting this stand for twenty-four hours until it became
slightly sour, then boiling it for an hour and leaving it to cool. The
natives, who had an objection to the horse-flesh and horse-soup, were
in the latter days of the siege fed wholly on this porridge.
Mafeking was relieved on the 18th of May. On the 20th, Snyman had
informed the government at Pretoria that he had retired from before
Mafeking on the arrival of a superior force. Thence it was telegraphed
through Lorenço Marques to the Cape, thence flashed both to Lord
Roberts at Kroonstad, and home, and in a few hours the English-speaking
people throughout the whole of the British Empire joined in rejoicing
at the safety of the heroic garrison.
Yorke that evening received from Baden-Powell a despatch giving an
account of the incidents of the siege, and the capture of Commandant
Eloff and his party. With this, and the despatches of Colonels Mahon
and Plumer, he started at daybreak on the following morning. Uncertain
as to the position of Lord Roberts, he kept close to the line by which
the force had advanced, and on the afternoon of the fifth day rode into
Boshof. He had taken with him provisions for the journey, a bag of oats
for the horse, and a canvas bag of water. He was twice seen and chased
by small parties of Boers, but, thanks to the excellence of his horse,
he left them behind without difficulty. He travelled from daylight up
till eleven o'clock, halted during the heat of the day, and at four
started again and rode till dark, and by this means his horse was able
to carry him without great effort.
He found that Lord Methuen, with the greater part of his force, had on
the 12th moved forward, and that he had reached Hoopstad on the 17th.
Kroonstad had been occupied by Lord Roberts on the 12th, and the force
still at Boshof heard that a halt had been made there until the day
before Yorke himself arrived at Boshof. The commander-in-chief had
effected the passage of the Rhenoster River without fighting, the Boers
having abandoned the strong position they had prepared, owing to their
being threatened by the cavalry, who had crossed the river higher up.
After a rest of eighteen hours, Yorke started for Kroonstad. He
scarcely saw a person during his long ride. The advance of Methuen to
Hoopstad, and Roberts to Kroonstad, so alarmed the Boers that they
had for the most part abandoned their farms and trekked north. The
majority, however, of the men capable of bearing arms were with the
commandos, and a few women only remained in the farmhouses. On the
third day after leaving Boshof he arrived at Kroonstad. Here his work
was practically over, and he was not sorry for it; for, excellent as
his horse was, it was beginning to feel the terrible strain of the
journey, having accomplished over four hundred miles in nine days, a
performance that showed the strength and endurance of the horses of the
lofty plateau of the Free State and the Transvaal.
[Illustration: YORKE RECEIVES A DESPATCH FROM BADEN-POWELL.]
A strong force was stationed at Kroonstad, which was now the base of
the advancing army. Going at once to Lord Methuen, who had arrived
there from Hoopstad two days before, Yorke obtained an order from him
for carriage for himself and horse in a train that would start at
midnight. He spent an hour relating to the general the adventures he
had passed through since he had last seen him on the Modder.
"You must be well mounted indeed to have got down from Mafeking in nine
days, Mr. Harberton. Of course, you might have done it in a great deal
shorter time had you ridden direct from Mafeking here, though I quite
understand that, knowing nothing of the commander-in-chief's movements,
you could not well have attempted that, for you would have had to pass
through a country we have not touched yet."
"Yes, sir, it would have been only about half the distance--probably, I
should say, even less than that."
"Yes, much less. We only reckon it to be a hundred and fifty miles from
here to Mafeking in a direct line. But, of course, carrying despatches
you could not have risked that, especially as you would have had to
cross the Vaal, and you may be sure that every drift on that river will
be strongly guarded."
"I don't think I should have come much quicker, sir. For, according
to my map, the country is a great deal rougher than that through
which I have travelled; and as the Boers have not been disturbed, I
dared not have ridden by day, and could hardly have found my way by
night; and there was no road marked, leading south-east from Mafeking,
which is about the line that I must have followed. I knew, too, that
Lord Roberts would have heard the news of the relief of Mafeking via
Pretoria. Had it been otherwise, I should have risked the attempt,
knowing the intense anxiety throughout the army and at home as to the
safety of the garrison. As I was only carrying the details, two or
three days' difference did not seem to me to be of importance. Had I
travelled by that line, I could only have hoped to succeed by coming
in disguise. I knew that Lord Roberts hoped to move from Bloemfontein
two days after I left him, but there might have been fresh misfortunes
like that at Sanna's Post. The line might have been cut in several
places, and he might have been so delayed that he would not have been
at Kroonstad by the time I arrived there. May I ask how far the general
has got?"
"He crossed the Vaal to-day and bivouacked at Vereeniging. Generals
French and Hutton, I believe, have moved on to Rietfontein, and General
Ian Hamilton to Rietkuil."
"Then he has crossed the Vaal without opposition, sir?"
"Yes, the cavalry outflanked the enemy. False news had been spread
as to the drifts by which they would cross, and the route they took
completely surprised the Boers, who had all cleared off before the main
army reached the river."
At twelve o'clock, Yorke took his place with his horse on a cattle
truck, and the next day came up to the head-quarters, which had that
morning arrived at the Klip River Station, little over ten miles from
Johannesburg. There he delivered his despatches to Lord Roberts, who,
on hearing the route he had followed, complimented him warmly upon the
rapidity with which he had made his journey.
"We have only heard the bare fact that Mafeking has been relieved. Were
they at their last gasp?"
"It did not look like it, sir. I do not know what stores they had
remaining, but I heard that they were pretty nearly out of everything
except oats and horse-flesh. The men certainly looked somewhat thin and
worn, but by all accounts they had kept up their spirits wonderfully,
and confidently relied upon succour arriving by the time we named."
"Did Mahon succeed in capturing any considerable force?"
"No, sir. There was a fight outside the town, but our guns were too
strong for them, and they fell back to their entrenchments on the other
side of the town. Colonel Baden-Powell attacked them there, but I think
they only made a stand to get their big gun away. This they succeeded
in doing, and only one small gun was captured. If the horses had been
fresher, no doubt a heavy blow might have been dealt them, but they
had had a very heavy march. Certainly the four Canadian guns could not
have pursued them with any chance of coming up with them, especially as
they had abandoned their waggons and stores; and Colonel Baden-Powell
believes that they sent off the big gun the day before, and only fought
their battle with us to give it time to get a long way on the road."
"It is a sort of conjuring trick," Lord Roberts said, with a smile.
"Heigh-ho, presto! and the gun is gone. We have out-manoeuvred them
many times, but never once have we caught one of their big guns. Such
cannon until the present war have been considered as simply guns of
position and wholly out of the question in military operations in the
field. I am sure I am much obliged to you for the zeal and activity
that you have displayed, and shall have pleasure in mentioning your
name most favourably in my despatches."
On leaving the general's tent, Yorke, to his great satisfaction, saw
Hans standing near. "I saw you ride in, master, and glad I was, for one
never knows what may happen."
"I am also glad to see you, Hans. I suppose Peter is here too?"
"Yes, sir, he is with the two horses; they are quite right again now. I
didn't ride either of them coming up, so that they should be as fit as
possible for work by the time you wanted them."
"I am glad to hear that, Hans, for this horse, good as it is, wants a
fortnight's rest after the tremendously hard work it has done since I
left you."