Scholtz,
whom, with his wife, I had met at Groot Schuurr as Mr. Rhodes's friends.
This gentleman, who is since dead, had always seemed to me somewhat of
an enigmatical personage. German by origin, he combined strong
sympathies with the Boers and fervent Imperialism, and I was therefore
always a little doubtful as to his real sentiments. He came very kindly
on this occasion to pay a friendly call, but also to inform me that he
was playing a prominent part in the abortive peace negotiations which at
that stage of the war were being freely talked about. Whether he had
acted on his own initiative, or whether he had actually been employed by
the authorities, he did not state; but he seemed to be full of
importance, and proud of the fact that he had spent two hours only a few
days before on a kopje in conference with Louis Botha, while the same
kopje was being energetically shelled by the English. He gave me,
indeed, to understand that the successful issue of the interview had
depended entirely on the amount the English Government was prepared to
pay, and that another L2,000,000 would have ended the war then and
there. He probably did not enjoy the full confidence of either side, and
I never verified the truth of his statements, which were as strange and
mysterious as the man himself, whom, as events turned out, I never saw
again.
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