England would at last interfere to obtain redress for us, and we must
not grumble now that what we have been so long expecting has at last
come to pass. I believe there will be some stern fighting. The Boers are
no cowards; courage is, indeed, as far as I know, the only virtue they
possess. In the long run they must certainly be beaten, but it will only
be after very hard fighting."

"What do you think they will do, father?"

"I can't say what they will do, but I am sure that what they ought to do
is to merely hold the passes from Natal with enough men for the purpose,
and to march their whole force, broken up into half a dozen columns,
into Cape Colony. There is no force there that could resist them, they
would be undoubtedly joined by every Dutchman there, and I am convinced
that the Africander ministry would at once declare for them, in which
case England would have to undertake the tremendous work of conquering
the whole of South Africa afresh, for certainly she could not allow it
to slip from her hands, even if it should prove as stern a business as
the conquering of half India after the Sepoy Mutiny. Now to business.
Fortunately we sent down your clothes and everything we had of value to
our friends the Wilsons, at Durban, six weeks ago. What you have
remaining you must leave behind to take its chance. You will be able to
take no luggage whatever with you. We know how terribly the trains have
been packed for the past fortnight, and a week ago almost all the
carriages were commandeered for the use of the troops going south.

"You must take with you a basket of provisions, sufficient, if
necessary, for two or three days for you both. There is no saying how
long you may be on your way to the frontier; once beyond that you will,
of course, be able to obtain anything you want. But you need expect no