of the Edict of Nantes.

Unlike most Boers of similar descent, these particular Marais--for,
of course, there are many other families so called--never forgot their
origin. Indeed, from father to son, they kept up some knowledge of the
French tongue, and among themselves often spoke it after a fashion.
At any rate, it was the habit of Henri Marais, who was excessively
religious, to read his chapter of the Bible (which it is, or was, the
custom of the Boers to spell out every morning, should their learning
allow them to do so), not in the "taal" or patois Dutch, but in good
old French. I have the very book from which he used to read now, for,
curiously enough, in after years, when all these events had long been
gathered to the past, I chanced to buy it among a parcel of other
works at the weekly auction of odds and ends on the market square of
Maritzburg. I remember that when I opened the great tome, bound over
the original leather boards in buckskin, and discovered to whom it had
belonged, I burst into tears. There was no doubt about it, for, as was
customary in old days, this Bible had sundry fly-leaves sewn up with it
for the purpose of the recording of events important to its owner.

The first entries were made by the original Henri Marais, and record how
he and his compatriots were driven from France, his father having lost
his life in the religious persecutions. After this comes a long list of
births, marriages and deaths continued from generation to generation,
and amongst them a few notes telling of such matters as the change of
the dwelling-places of the family, always in French. Towards the end of
the list appears the entry of the birth of the Henri Marais whom I knew,
alas! too well, and of his only sister. Then is written his marriage to
Marie Labuschagne, also, be it noted, of the Huguenot stock. In the
next year follows the birth of Marie Marais, my Marie, and, after a
long interval, for no other children were born, the death of her mother.
Immediately below appears the following curious passage:

"Le 3 Janvier, 1836. Je quitte ce pays voulant me sauver du maudit
gouvernement Britannique comme mes ancetres se sont sauves de ce
diable--Louis XIV.

"A bas les rois et les ministres tyrannique! Vive la liberte!"

Which indicates very clearly the character and the opinions of Henri
Marais, and the feeling among the trek-Boers at that time.

Thus the record closes and the story of the Marais ends--that is, so