Perils in the Transvaal and Zululand Part 34

"I don't know, indeed--not old Kransberg, I suppose?"

"Not _old_ Kransberg, but I did meet the young one--our friend Rudolf.

What should bring him here, or Gottlob Lisberg, or Hans Stockmar, or Julius Vanderbilt, or half a dozen other fellows from near Zeerust, whom I have seen about in the course of the last week, unless what they say is true, and they are going to rebel against the English Government."

"It looks like it, I'm afraid. But about Rudolf Kransberg--did you come to speech of him? How did he receive you?"

"I didn't come to speech of him, as he didn't say a single word. He received me as Dido did Aeneas in the infernal regions."

"What! he bears us some grudge for the trick played on him at Umtongo?"

"I am not at all sure that he realises the fact that any trick was played on him. From what Lisberg told me,--Lisberg is very intimate with him, you know,--he fancies the explosion was the work of the Evil One, and that we are in league with him. You know Thyrza wrote us word that he had never turned up at Umtongo again. My mother thought it very odd, but she apparently still believes he is a suitor for Thyrza's hand."

"I suppose Thyrza herself has a pretty shrewd suspicion of the truth."

"I suppose she has, but if she guessed that Rudolf had taken up that notion, she would be quite content to let him entertain it. But the upshot, I fancy, is that Rudolf owes us one, and will pay it if he has the opportunity. He is as thorough a specimen of the sullen Boer as I know, and your sullen Boer is not a pleasant article. But, Redgy," he added, after a few minutes' silence, "there is a matter which I have once or twice wished to speak to you about, but have always put it off.

I have a fancy that you really do care for Thyrza, notwithstanding your chaff about her. We are very old friends, and out here, cut off from all the rest of the world, we are like brothers. I wish you would tell me the plain truth about this matter."

"Well, old fellow, where is the use of telling it? I don't see how any one could live as long as I did in your sister's society, and not care for her. She is simply the sweetest and most beautiful creature I have ever seen. But where is the good of my saying this, George? I can't ask her to marry me; I have nothing but a precarious allowance of a hundred pounds a year, and I am not likely to have anything more, unless I can make it myself out here."

"But if Thyrza likes you--"

"I don't know that she does," broke in Margetts. "I have fancied once or twice that she does. But most likely it was all fancy."

"I am only saying, if she _does_ like you, she will have something.

Umtongo belongs to my mother, not to Mr Mansen."

"But Umtongo will come to you, George," said Margetts, surprised.

"I shall not want it. I shall never marry; and this life here suits me much better than such a farm as Umtongo, though, no doubt, that is a very good farm."

"No doubt," a.s.sented his friend. "I see what you mean, and I believe I understand you, when you say you won't marry. But, in the first place, I hope you are mistaken there; and, in the next, supposing everything else arranged as you wish, Thyrza and I could never deprive you of your inheritance. No, George; I mean to stay here and work as I am doing now. I shall never make a parson; I'm not cut out for that. But I think I shall do well enough at farming and teaching; and, by and by, if your sister doesn't marry a Boer, I may be in a position to ask her."

"Be it so, Redgy. I believe you are right, and this had better not be mentioned again. And here, in good time, comes Mr Rogers. He is back from Newcastle earlier than I had expected."

Mr Rogers, whose acquaintance the reader made in the first chapter of this story, was an extremely worthy man. It would have been well for both England and South Africa if there had been more like him. Left an orphan when quite young, and possessed of a considerable fortune, he had always disliked the ordinary round of English social life, and desired the freer air and habits of a new country. As soon as he could overcome the reluctance of his guardian to the step, he had visited the colonies, and chosen out from among them the border country of Natal and the Transvaal. There he had bought a large farm,--large even for farms in that country,--and built two or three different stations on various parts of it. Spielman's Vley and Rylands were two of these, and here he placed men whose views accorded with his own. Ludwig Mansen, though a Dutchman, had been one of these; and it was with considerable regret that he heard, soon after his arrival in England, of Mrs Mansen's succession to her uncle's property near Zeerust and their removal thither. Notwithstanding his affection for colonial life, he was an Englishman to the backbone, and the blunders made by Colonial Secretaries, one after another, sorely disturbed him. In particular, the gigantic mistake of the annexation of the Transvaal so troubled him, that he made an expedition to England in the hope of persuading the Government to reconsider that disastrous measure. There was no doubt it was, for the moment, advantageous to the Boers, as a sentence of penal servitude would be less unwelcome to a convicted prisoner than a sentence of death. But when the danger of being hanged had pa.s.sed away, it was not likely that penal servitude would be cheerfully accepted.

Foreseeing the inevitable mischief that would ensue, Mr Rogers had urged the repeal, or, at all events, some modification of the decree.

But the new Government could not be induced to pay any heed to South African matters, being completely absorbed by domestic and Continental questions; and Mr Rogers went back to Umvalosa, to do the best he could under the circ.u.mstances of the case.

On the present occasion he had not returned from Newcastle (whither he had gone, as was his practice, to help in the church services on a Sunday) in the happiest frame of mind. Everywhere he saw the plainest indications of the mischief he had antic.i.p.ated. Newcastle was full of Boers, who had come in from the more distant parts of the Transvaal, and their feelings and intentions could not be mistaken: not only was revolt designed, but it was close at hand. He greeted George and Redgy with his usual kindness, but his depression and vexation were evident.

"Did you know that your stepfather and mother, as well as your sister, were on the way here?" he asked, addressing Rivers.

"No, sir, I had no idea of it. I haven't had a letter for the last fortnight; and Thyrza, from whom I heard three weeks ago, said nothing of any such intention."

"No; I imagine it must have been a hasty thought. But they are certainly on their way to Newcastle, and will arrive in a day or two at furthest."

"Who told you of it, sir?" asked George. "Perhaps it is some mistake."

"No, that can hardly be. It was Henryk Vander Heyden who informed me.

I met him in the street at Newcastle, where he arrived two days ago.

Mansen, with his wife and daughter, were to follow him very shortly.

Miss Vander Heyden is to travel in their company. Her brother thought it better."

"What are all the ladies coming for?" inquired Redgy. "They are not going to fight the English, anyhow."

"No," said Mr Rogers; "but it may not be safe for them to stay behind.

Nearly all the able-bodied men among the Boers will take part in the rising. The Kaffirs and Hottentots would have it their own way, and they might insult or injure the white women. I think Vander Heyden, and your stepfather too, George, are quite right to bring their ladies with them."

"I suppose Vander Heyden is very hot about this," suggested Rivers.

"Yes, he is determined enough, and he is a dangerous opponent to the English. He is a good officer; especially, he understands his countrymen's mode of fighting, and knows from experience what are the faults into which our officers are likely to fall. And he is a desperate man into the bargain."

"How so, sir? I do not understand you."

"Don't you know the story of the girl who was killed by the Zulus not long before the battle of Isandhlwana?"

"Yes; I heard something about it, I believe, from Mr Baylen or Hardy, I don't remember which. Some female relative of his was killed in a very brutal manner. But they are always brutal, these Zulus."

"It was too sad a matter to be much spoken about. The lady, Lisa van Courtlandt, had been engaged to him for some years, and he is said to have been greatly attached to her. She had been murdered just before he came up, and the sight of her mangled corpse drove him, they said, almost mad. It wasn't merely for the purpose of avenging her death that he enlisted in our army--at least, so it is thought. He wanted, poor fellow, to get knocked on the head himself."

"Well, that explains what I couldn't understand before," said Margetts,--"why he was so terribly vexed when it was settled that he was to remain at Rorke's Drift. He was for a time almost beside himself."

"And that, too, may account for his desperate exposure of himself during that night of the encounter with the Zulus," added Rivers. "I never saw a man so utterly insensible to danger; and he hardly seemed rejoiced the next morning at his escape. Poor fellow, he has had a hard lot in life!

Well, I agree with you, Mr Rogers; I have no doubt he will fight desperately enough in this outbreak, if it really is going to take place."

"That, I am afraid, there is no doubt of. Vander Heyden told me as much. He wanted to know whether you and Margetts meant to volunteer again to serve in the English army. If you did, he said, you should leave the Transvaal immediately, or you might be arrested. He offered to give you a pa.s.s which would carry you across the frontier. That was very kind and generous."

"What did you tell him, sir?" asked Rivers.

"Oh, I said that you were now in orders, and, of course, would not think of fighting; as for you, Mr Margetts, I said I did not know what you might do, but I would ask you, and let him know if you required his help."

"I am obliged to him," said Margetts; "but I have no idea of volunteering again. I consider this to be quite a different matter from the Zulu war, where it was a question whether barbarous or lawless cruelty should be put down. Unless I am myself interfered with, I shall not interfere in this business."

"I am glad to hear you say so," said Mr Rogers. "Then we shall all remain quietly here. I shall invite the Mansens to come and stay at d.y.k.eman's Hollow, and I think they will come. It will be quieter and more comfortable for them than Utrecht or Newcastle, which are overcrowded. I have no doubt Vander Heyden, who has a high command, will be able to secure us from molestation."

Mr Rogers was not disappointed in either expectation. In a few days Mrs Mansen and Thyrza arrived; while Ludwig joined the a.s.sembled council of Boers which was now sitting at Heidelberg, exerting himself to prevent the rising which was evidently on the point of taking place.

Simultaneously with the appearance of the ladies came a note from Vander Heyden, endorsing a protection from Praetorius for all the inmates of Mr Rogers' household. Not long afterwards the standard of rebellion was openly displayed, and Ludwig joined his family at the Hollow. The Boers in all parts of the Transvaal now took the field with their Westley Richard rifles, and all through the Transvaal the English were obliged to fly for refuge to towns or villages, where they were besieged by the Boers.

Resolved not to provoke the animosity, or even the distrust of his neighbours, Mr Rogers kept himself and all his employes within the bounds of his own domains, not even sending a letter or a message to Newcastle, lest it might be supposed to have some political purpose. He advised his guests also to observe the same prudent demeanour. No doubt Mynheer Mansen was a Dutchman, and one very generally respected; but his wife and stepdaughter were English, and they were the guests of an Englishman; and at this time national feeling, as it might be termed, ran so high that the merest trifle might be enough to cause a general outbreak. The Mansens would have had no inclination to act otherwise than as he advised, even if their sense of what was due to him as their host had not forbade them to do so. They regarded the strife that was in progress as a vexation and a calamity; and whatever might be the issue of it, they were anxious to see an end put to it.

But the ladies felt the time hang heavily on their hands; and when one day had been expended on a visit to George and Redgy's cottage and garden and an inspection of their farmyard and stock, and another to the church and school where he ministered and taught, they were at a loss how to employ themselves, until their host, by a happy inspiration, one day late in January suggested a visit to Kolman's Kop, a most picturesque spot on the very edge of Mr Rogers' estate, from which a wide prospect might be obtained of that part of the Orange Free State known as Harrismith. The road from Bloemfontein to Newcastle ran close beside it, and was visible for a long distance from the summit of the Kop, though the latter was so thickly wooded as to screen any visitors to it from being themselves seen by pa.s.sing travellers.

To this spot it was agreed that an expedition should be made on the following day; and the whole party, inclusive of Mr Rogers, who acted as guide, set out after breakfast, on horses and mules, having sent some Kaffirs on before them to make the needful preparations.

Kolman's Kop was situated on one of the spurs of the Drakensbergs, not ascending so high as to be bleak or chill, yet high enough to command a magnificent view of the landscape beneath, and there are few countries in the world in which so vast a panorama is visible from the higher lands as in the Orange Free State. It is not, indeed, an unbroken level, like the low country of the Netherlands, being continually varied by hill and ridge. But these hardly anywhere rise to any considerable height, so that from the slopes of the Drakenberg the eye may range in every direction, until the horizon line melts into the distance. It is a fertile and picturesque territory, watered by n.o.ble rivers, whose banks, for the most part, are fringed with foliage, rich with corn lands and fruit orchards, and pastures where sheep and oxen and horses are bred abundantly. The land on that side of the Drakensbergs being considerably more elevated than on that of Natal, the climate is cooler and more agreeable to European residents. A general cry of admiration broke from the visitors as they caught sight of it, and sitting down on the trunk of a fallen tree, they proceeded more leisurely to examine its beauties.

"Well, sir, the Dutch have not much to complain of here, at all events,"

observed Redgy after a lengthened survey of the scene. "No wonder they halted here when driven from their homes by the English. I should have thought, for my part, that they might have been very thankful to the English for driving them here!"