Next day we were pleasantly surprised by a call at the cottage from Messrs. Phillips, Farrar, and Colonel Rhodes, liberated under the same conditions as was my husband—­a bail of 50,000 dollars and a heavy guard.  They were then on their way to a cottage at Sunnyside.  Mrs. Farrar and I hugged each other with joy, and were quite ready to do the same to the lawyers who had been so successful in attaining this end.  When I learned a little later that consent had been given for Mr. Hammond to be taken to Johannesburg my measure of happiness seemed indeed complete.

With all speed Parker and I tied up our belongings.  Lieutenant de Korte, with nine guards, was to attend us as far as Johannesburg.  A bed was made for the sick man on one of the seats, and frequent stimulants helped him bear the journey.  The thought of going home did as much as the cordials to stay his strength, I shall always believe.  A number of gentlemen of my husband’s staff were at the station to meet us.  Mr. Catlin’s kind face I could see above all the others, and dear Pope Yeatman’s.  Before we could exchange greetings we were whisked off into our carriage by the officer whose duty it was to take us in charge.  A soldier hopped up on the box, and another planted himself on the seat opposite to us—­to my inconvenience, and Parker’s intense indignation.  Our home was alight.  There was a good dinner on the table, and my husband, with his natural hospitality, invited the officer to share it with us.  I think I should have shot him if he had accepted—­but he did not accept.

There had been a fearful dynamite explosion at Fordsburg, a suburb of Johannesburg, late in the afternoon, and he was busied with bringing in the wounded.  Very politely he asked me to take him through the house.  This I did, grimly remarking, as I pointed to the window in my dressing-room, ’That is the one he will escape by when we have made up our minds to run.’  This cheap wit cost me weeks of inconvenience, for the literal Hollander took me at my word, and posted a guard directly opposite this window.  Being a Vrywilliger[7] and a gentleman, this poor man suffered as sharply from his position as did I. That night two armed men stood at our chamber door.  One was stationed at each of our bedroom windows.  Another guarded the house entrance, and the remainder of the guard were dispersed around the yard.  Their guns were loaded, and a bandolier of cartridges crossed their breasts.  All this to restrain a poor, broken man, who could not walk a dozen yards!

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 7:  A volunteer.]

VII

ASH WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19.—­The dynamite explosion was something terrific.  Fifty-five tons exploded at one time, wounding 700 people, killing 80, and leaving 1,500 homeless.  It ripped a chasm in the earth deep enough to hold an Atlantic steamer with all her rigging.  The Kaffirs thought the sun had burst.  Betty says the noise of the report was something awful.  Little Jacky was digging in the garden at the time.  He returned to the house at once with a very troubled face.  The coachman coming from town an hour later told of the dreadful catastrophe.  Jacky took his aunt aside:  ’Aunt Bet, I heard that great big noise when I was diggin’ and I thought I had dug up hell.’