t would meet the Reform Committee half-way--that the
Government was anxious to prevent bloodshed, &c. That they could
promise that the Government would redress the Uitlander grievances
upon the lines laid down in the Manifesto, but that of course all the
demands would not be conceded at once, and both sides must be willing
to compromise. The Reform Committee met to consider this proposal,
and after long discussion decided to send a deputation to Pretoria.
These gentlemen leave with Messrs. Malan and Marais on a special train
to-night for Pretoria.

Johannesburg is quiet as ever was country town. The streets deserted.
Nothing to suggest a city girt around by a cordon of soldiers, and yet
such it is.

At midnight my husband ran in for a moment to see how we had stood the
strain of the day.

'Is the news from Jameson really true?' I asked, still hoping it was
rumour.

'I am afraid so.'

'And are those heavy wagons just going down the street carrying the
big guns to the outskirts?'

'Yes. Good-night, dear.' He was gone.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The sufferings of this hapless crowd were acute.
Provisions were hard to obtain at the way stations. The water supply
gave out. A little child died of exposure, and the heart-broken mother
held the lifeless body twenty-four hours on her lap. There was no room
to lay it to one side. Another woman gave birth to an infant.]

[Footnote 2: The Cornish miners were politely presented at Kimberley
and other places en route with bunches of white feathers by the
howling mob. One Cornishman afterwards related that he was pulled out
at every station and made to fight. After the fourth mauling he turned
round and went back to Johannesburg, preferring to take his chances
with the Boers.]

III

January 1, 1896.--With the dawn of day I am out of bed and at the
window waiting for the cry of the newsboy.

What will the New Year bring us?

With nervous dread I opened the paper brought to my door. In large
headlines it told of disaster.

The Natal train filled with refugee women and children has been
wrecked, with great loss of life. The papers say forty have been
killed outright, and many fearfully injured. Entire families have been
wiped out in some cases. Mr. ---- has lost his wife, his sister, and
three little children. This is the result of a Boer concession. The
accident was caused by the Netherlands carriages being poorly built
and top-heavy. In rounding a curve th