her good things had
fallen before; and, having obtained this supreme triumph and enjoyed it
for a time, he was tactful enough to retire at precisely the right moment.

The Raid indirectly killed Rhodes and directly obliterated his political
reputation. It lost him, too, the respect of all the men who could have
helped him to govern South Africa wisely and well. It deprived him of the
experience and popularity of Mr. Schreiner, Mr. Merriman, Mr. Sauer and
other members of the Afrikander Bond who had once been upon terms of
intimacy and affection with him.

It must never be forgotten that at one period of his history Rhodes was
considered to be the best friend of the Dutch party; and, secondly, that
he had been the first to criticise the action of the British Government in
regard to the Transvaal. At the very moment when the Raid was contemplated
he was making the most solemn assurances to his friends--as they then
believed themselves to be--that he would never tolerate any attack against
the independence of the Boers. If his advice had been taken, Rhodes
considered that the errors which culminated at Majuba with the defeat of
the British troops would have been avoided. He caused the same assurances
to be conveyed to President Kruger, and this duplicity, which in anyone
less compromised than he was in regard to the Dutch party might have been
blamed, was in his case considered as something akin to high treason, and
roused against him sentiments not only of hatred, but also of disgust.
When later on, at the time of the Boer War, Rhodes made attempts to
ingratiate himself once more into the favour of the Dutch he failed to
realise that while there are cases when animosity can give way before
political necessity, it is quite impossible in private to shake hands with
an individual whom one despises. And that such persons as Mrs. van Koopman
or Mr. Schreiner, for instance, despised Rhodes there can be no doubt.

They were wrong in doing so. Rhodes was essentially a man of moods, and
also an opportunist in his strange, blunt way. Had the Dutch rallied round
him during the last war it is certain that he would have given himself up
body and soul to the task of trying to smooth over the difficulties which
gave such an obstinate character to the war. He would have induced the
English Government to grant to all rebel colonists who returned to their
allegiance a generous pardon and reinstatement into their former rights.

Even whil