The former had been
commandeered twice during the war, but he hastened to assure us that,
though he had been at the laager, and even in the trenches before
Mafeking, he had never let off his rifle, and had given it up with great
pleasure to the English only the day before. This old-fashioned hostelry
was very comfortable and commodious, with excellent cooking, but it was
not till the next day that we realized how pretty was the town of
Zeerust, and how charmingly situated. The houses, standing back from the
wide road, were surrounded by neat little gardens and rows of cypresses.
Looking down the main street, in either direction, were purple,
tree-covered hills. A stream wound its way across one end of the
highway, and teams of sleepy fat oxen with bells completed the illusion
that we had suddenly been transported into a town of Northern Italy or
of the Lower Engadine. However, other circumstances contributed to give
it an air of depression and sadness. On the stoeps of the houses were
gathered groups of Dutch women and girls, many of them in deep mourning,
and all looking very miserable, gazing at us with unfriendly eyes.
Fine-looking but shabbily-clad men were to be met carrying their rifles
and bandoliers to the Landrost's late office, now occupied by Colonel
Plumer and his Staff.
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