and amongst them a few notes telling of such matters as the change of
the dwelling-places of the family, always in French. Towards the end of
the list appears the entry of the birth of the Henri Marais whom I knew,
alas! too well, and of his only sister. Then is written his marriage to
Marie Labuschagne, also, be it noted, of the Huguenot stock. In the
next year follows the birth of Marie Marais, my Marie, and, after a long
interval, for no other children were born, the death of her mother.
Immediately below appears the following curious passage:

"Le 3 Janvier, 1836. Je quitte ce pays voulant me sauver du maudit
gouvernement Britannique comme mes ancetres se sont sauves de ce
diable--Louis XIV.

"A bas les rois et les ministres tyrannique! Vive la liberte!"

Which indicates very clearly the character and the opinions of Henri
Marais, and the feeling among the trek-Boers at that time.

Thus the record closes and the story of the Marais ends--that is, so far
as the writings in the Bible go, for that branch of the family is now
extinct.

Their last chapter I will tell in due course.


There was nothing remarkable about my introduction to Marie Marais. I
did not rescue her from any attack of a wild beast or pull her out of a
raging river in a fashion suited to romance. Indeed, we interchanged
our young ideas across a small and extremely massive table, which, in
fact, had once done duty as a block for the chopping up of meat. To