Leaving the court-room I was called back to shake hands with the judges, who congratulated me with the acquittal.  Thus the trial, which lasted five days, came to an end.  The clouds cleared up.  The sun rose.  It was all brightness.  I had passed unscathed through the ordeal, to indulge that night in slumbers calm and sweet.

Just a few days before the trial commenced I was somewhat reassured and encouraged to hope for the best.  An unknown friend kindly dropped a newspaper cutting, tied to a piece of stone, over the prison yard.  This press-cutting fell into my hands, and in it I saw that a large section of the British public strongly disapproved of the action of the Military Government re late Commandant Scheepers, and that section and people all over the continent and in the United States of America were asking, “What about Kritzinger—­will he too be shot?” I noticed also that petitions on my behalf were being drawn up in England and elsewhere, and signed extensively.

All the men and women who so petitioned His Majesty the King to spare my life I thank most sincerely, for the interest shown in my case, and for the efforts put forth to save my life.  How much I owe such I do not fully know; but I do appreciate the deed of kindness shown to me in the darkest moments of my life.  Such deeds are never forgotten.  They illuminate life’s way with such splendour as fills the soul with inexpressible gratitude.

I have related the story of my trial briefly and as accurately as I could.  I do not wish to comment on the justice or injustice of the proceedings.  It is for others to judge whether an officer, who was a burgher of the Orange Free State, and not a rebel, should have been court-martialled, and while the war was still in progress, on such unfounded charges.  I shall not say whether I consider it just and fair that, tried as a prisoner-of-war and acquitted as such, I should have had to pay a bill of L226 for my defence.  What if a prisoner does not possess the means to secure legal defence?  Must he then be condemned without it?  Has this not been done in certain cases?  I shall ask no more questions.  I did not mind the money, but was only too glad to inhale once more air not pregnant with death and destruction.

Our object in mentioning these details is to illustrate the nature of some of the charges brought against Boer officers and burghers when court-martialled by the British.  These charges of murder were, as a rule, associated with Kaffirs who had been shot, either in fair fight or as spies.  Our officers were held responsible for the acts of their men.  Moreover, by proclamation, any officer or burgher convicted of shooting a Kaffir or Hottentot, after having surrendered, could be charged with murder and condemned to death.  The principle laid down in this proclamation, that the life of a surrendered foe should not be taken, must be endorsed by every right-minded man.  The burghers, however, argued that, since the war had