THE BOERS BROUGHT TO BOOK. 223 



and chattels. There was no use remonstrating, back it 

 must go to Zeerust. Fighting was out of the question, 

 for I was outnumbered to such an extent that I had not a 

 chance. To have recourse to the last was objectionable 

 in the extreme, for who knows what a man may do in 

 the height of passion when engaged in a melee ? and I, 

 unfortunately, am not the most submissive creature if 

 I think my toes are intentionally trod upon. 



There was nothing for it that I could see but to put 

 in the cattle and return ; it was very galling, very 

 humiliating, it is true, and to be looked at, possibly 

 jeered at, by the whole Dutch population of the village 

 as I passed through it, made me well wish I had paid 

 the nasty five pounds at first, and saved myself the 

 degradation now before me. 



The cattle had been in yoke some time, and would 

 have been in motion before, but that I felt it incumbent 

 on me to expel a filthy Boer, who, boots and all, was 

 lounging on my clean bed for I had beautiful scarlet 

 blankets, and took a pleasure in trying to keep it in 

 some semblance of what I should have at home. 

 He was a stiff-backed man, and as tall as myself, 

 so I had no easy task ; however, in our struggle we both 

 dumped out of the back of the wagon, my adversary 

 fortunately underneath. In this rencontre I had not 

 much to boast of, and I knew it. 



Things had reached this pitch when a horseman 

 arrived ; to my great joy I recognised him as the sheriff 

 I had met and entertained at Leichtberg. Here he was 

 the chief government officer, and, I believed, a good 

 fellow. The case was explained to him by my foes, and 

 its monstrosity enlarged on by myself; I was called every 

 opprobrious epithet that Boer language could furnish. 



