SOUTH AFRICA 51 



" I think we had better get back, as if the Boers 

 have seen what I have said about them in my 

 letters home they will be after me." 



This was in jest, of course, but there is no doubt 

 that they were becoming- unbearably truculent and 

 insolent. His opinion of them has already been 

 quoted. 



That evening Lord Randolph's meal consisted 

 of a poached egg and a bottle of champagne ; he 

 was unable to eat more from fatigue. The main 

 object of his travels in Africa was to regain at 

 least some of his fast-declining health, and I well 

 remember his saying that the climax of a some- 

 what overtaxed brain was reached when he was 

 preparing his Budget speech, 1886; shortly after 

 this he resigned the appointment of Chancellor. 

 About a year after my return to England I 

 happened to be a guest of the Hon. R. Burke, 

 who had taken Lord Mayo's residence in County 

 Kildare. It was here that Lord Randolph had 

 been staying when he was preparing the speech, 

 and the room which was put at his disposal was 

 shown to guests as a sort of memorial of his in- 

 defatigable capacity for work. As Lord Randolph 

 himself said, he never recovered from the terrific 

 strain of that all-niorht sittinQ-. Durinor these hours 

 he had smoked over a hundred cigarettes and 

 consumed large quantities of whisky and soda. 



