ints which
stood out clearly appeared to be that Englishmen were as brave, and
perhaps also as foolhardy, as ever; that President Kruger, while
pretending to shut his eyes, had known exactly all that was going
forward; that the Boers had lost nothing of their old skill in shooting
and ambushing, while the rapid rising and massing of their despised
forces was as remarkable in its way as Jameson's forced march.

It was said at the time that the proclamation issued by the Government
at home, repudiating the rebels, was the factor which prevented the
Johannesburgers from joining forces with the Raiders when they arrived
at Krugersdorp, as no doubt had been arranged, and that this step of the
Home Government had, curiously enough, not been foreseen by the
organizers of this deeply-laid plot. There is no doubt that there were
two forces at work in Johannesburg, as, indeed, I had surmised during
our voyage out: the one comprising the financiers, which strove to
attain its ends by manifesto and public meeting, with the hint of
sterner measures to follow; and the other impatient of delay, and thus
impelled to seek the help of those who undoubtedly became freebooters
the moment they crossed the Transvaal border. Certainly Dr. Jameson's
reported words seemed to echo with reproach and disappointment--the
reproach of a man who has been deceived; but whatever his feelings were
at that moment of despair, when his lucky star seemed at length to have
deserted him with a vengeance, I happen to know he never bore any
lasting grudge against his Johannesburg friends, and that he remained on
terms of perfect friendship even with the five members of the Reform
Committee, with whom all the negotiations had gone forward. These
included Colonel Frank Rhodes,[3] always one of his favourite
companions.

As an instance of how acute was the feeling suddenly roused respecting
Englishmen, I remember that Mr. Harry Lawson, who was staying in the
same house as ourselves, and had decided to leave for Johannesburg as
special correspondent to his father's paper, the _Daily Telegraph_, was
actually obliged to travel under a foreign name; and even then, if my
memory serves me right, he did not succeed in reaching the Rand. In the
meantime, as the daily papers received fuller details, harrowing
accounts came to hand of the exodus from Johannesburg of men, women, and
children travelling twenty in a compartment meant for eight, while
others, not so fortunate,