In the town itself General French and his Staff had
established themselves at the Netherlands Club, from which resort the
members had been politely ejected.
To outward appearances, civil as well as military business was being
transacted in Pretoria with perfect smoothness, in spite of the
proximity of the enemy. The yeomanry were acting as police both there
and in Johannesburg. The gaol, of which we had a glimpse, was crowded
with 240 prisoners, but was under the competent direction of the usual
English under-official, who had been in the service of the Transvaal,
and who had quietly stepped into the shoes of his chief, a Dutchman,
when the latter bolted with Kruger. This prison was where the Raiders
and the Reformers had been in durance vile, and the gallows were pointed
out to us with the remark that, during the last ten years, they had only
been once used, their victim being an Englishman. A Dutchman, who had
been condemned to death during the same period for killing his wife, had
been reprieved.
In the same way the Natal Bank and the Transvaal National Bank were
being supervised by their permanent officials, men who had been at their
posts during the war, and who, although under some suspicions, had not
been removed. At the latter bank the manager told us how President
Kruger had sent his Attorney-General to fetch the gold in coins and bar
just before he left for Delagoa Bay, and how it was taken away on a
trolley.
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