specially in my recollection. Among them, a type of a fine old
gentleman, was Colonel Schermbrucker. A German by birth, and over
seventy years of age, he had served originally in the Papal Guard, and
had accompanied Pio Nono on the occasion of his famous flight from Rome.
Somewhere in the fifties, at the time of the arrival of the German
Legion, he had settled at the Cape, and had been a figure in politics
ever since. His opinions were distinctly English and progressive, but it
was more as an almost extinct type of the courtly old gentleman that he
impressed me. His extreme activity for his years, his old-world manners,
and his bright intelligence, were combinations one does not often meet,
and would have made him an interesting figure in any assembly or
country. Another day came Judge Coetzee, erstwhile Kruger's confidant
and right hand, but then of a very different way of thinking to his old
master. His remark on the warlike situation was as follows: "Kruger is
only a white Kaffir chief, and as such respects force, and force only.
Send sufficient soldiers, and there will be no fighting." This was also
Mr. Rhodes's view, but, as it turned out, both were wrong. In the
meantime the sands were running out, and the troops were almost on the
water, and yet the old man remained obdurate.

Outside the hospitable haven of Groot Schuurr I one day met Mr. Merriman
at lunch as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Solomon.[14] Considerably
above the average height, with a slight stoop and grey hair, Mr.
Merriman was a man whose appearance from the first claimed interest. It
was a few days after his Budget speech, which, from various innovations,
had aroused a storm of criticism, as Budgets are wont to do. Whatever
his private feelings were about the English, to me the Finance Minister
was very pleasant and friendly. We talked of fruit-farming, in which he
takes a great interest, of England, and even of his Budget, and never
did he show any excitement or irritation till someone happened to