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Updated: June 9, 2025
"I mentioned it to Van Zyl, because it struck me I had about knocked their Royal British moral endways. "'No, says he, rocking as usual on his pony. 'My Captain Mankeltow he is sick. That is all. "'So's your Captain Mankeltow's guns, I said. 'But I'm going to make 'em a heap sicker before he gets well. "'No, says Van Zyl. 'He has had the enteric a little.
'I've never known a Dutchman a professing Atheist, but some few have been rather active Agnostics since the British sat down in Pretoria. Old man Van Zyl he told me had soured on religion after Bloemfontein surrendered. He was a Free Stater for one thing. "'He that believeth, says the General, 'shall not make haste. That's in Isaiah. We believe we're going to win, and so we don't make haste.
He was dead, beyond all doubt; so I turned to the next man, who proved to be a gigantic Dutchman named Dirk Van Zyl, the author of all the trouble. This man, I presently discovered, had received no fewer than nine wounds, four of which, from their extent and situation, I considered desperate.
The great bell was tolled, and orders were issued that all arms should be brought to the town hall, that the women should assemble in the cathedral and the men in the cloister of Zyl. Then Don Frederick with his staff rode into the city. The scene which met their eyes was a terrible one.
I hadn't any more use for a reb than Van Zyl, and I knew something of the lies they'd fed us up with from the Colony for a year and more. I told the minister to pull his freight out of that, and went on with my lunch, when another man come along and shook hands with Van Zyl. He'd known him at close range in the Kimberley seige and before. Van Zyl was well seen by his neighbours, I judge.
He'd lay out three or four of our commando, and we'd gather in four or five of his once a week or thereon. One time, I remember, long towards dusk we saw 'em burying five of their boys. They stood pretty thick around the graves. We wasn't more than fifteen hundred yards off, but old Van Zyl wouldn't fire. He just took off his hat at the proper time.
'Johanna must have misunderstood me, or else I've got the wrong Dutch word for these blarsted days of the week. I told Johanna I'd be out on Friday. The woman's a fool. Oah, da-am it all! he says. 'I wouldn't have sold old Van Zyl a pup like that, he says. 'I'll hunt him up and apologise.
They began discussing previous scraps all along the old man's beat about sixty of 'em as well as side- shows with other generals and columns. Van Zyl told 'im of a big beat he'd worked on a column a week or so before I'd joined him. He demonstrated his strategy with forks on the table. "'There! said the General, when he'd finished. 'That proves my contention to the hilt.
"'Have you gathered in old man Van Zyl? I said. "'Commandant Van Zyl, he says very stiff, 'was most unfortunately wounded, but I am glad to say it's not serious.
Van Zyl talked to 'em in Dutch, and one man, a big red-bearded minister, at Beaufort West, I remember, he jest wilted on the platform. "'Keep your prayers for yourself, says Van Zyl, throwing back a bunch of grapes. 'You'll need 'em, and you'll need the fruit too, when the war comes down here. You done it, he says. 'You and your picayune Church that's deader than Cronje's dead horses!
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