e infamous name which was given to that holy spot has
gone down to generations in its infamy, and ever will. Is there here a
Bezuidenhout, is there a Meyer, is there a Faber, is there a Snyman--
yea, and I could name a score of others, a hundred others, a thousand
others--in the veins of whom runs the blood of the patriot martyrs? Let
them not forget the English butchery of Slagter's Nek; then, when their
rifles are pointing straight, let their watchword be `Slagter's Nek'!"

The speaker paused. Utterly carried away by his own feeling; his whole
frame was in a quiver. His eyes were flashing, and the sinews of his
great hand resting upon the holy volume leapt out into knots. The
_predikant_, seated at his right, poured out a glass of water from an
earthenware carafe on the table, and thrust it into his hand, and he
swallowed the contents as with an effort, and in choking gulps. The
effect upon the audience was marvellous. Thoroughly overawed, its
feeling was expressed by exclamations deep rather than loud, and several
of the old men present uncovered--for all wore their hats except the
orator himself--and mumbled a fervid prayer. The fact that the
historical tragedy had been enacted eighty-three years previously was
quite lost to view. It might have taken place yesterday for the effect
the recalling of it produced upon the gathering.

The orator proceeded. He drew vivid pictures of the exodus of the
original Dutch settlers, sacrificing all to be free from the hated
English rule; of their intrepid and simple and God-fearing lives; of
their daily hardships and toil; of their peril at the hands of fierce
and warlike tribes; and while setting forth their endurance and heroism,
he never wandered far from the main point, the text of his whole
discourse--viz. how all that their fathers, the old Voortrekkers, had to
endure was the outcome of the oppressive rapacity of the English yoke.
The myrmidons of England would not leave them in peace and quietness
even when they had avenged the bloodshed and treachery of the Zulu
despot, and had reason to believe they had at last found the land of
promise. Let them look at Natal to-day. They, the Dutch, had bought it
from Dingane, and had occupied it. But the English had come and had
seized it from them, had robbed them of the fruit of their labours and
of their toil, and of their outpoured blood. Let them look at the
Transvaal of to-day. It was the same there. A horde of E