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Our tents were pitched on the northern slopes of this mountain range, which runs from east to west, six miles to the north of Molteno. Here we were to have our first lesson in actual fighting; for up to that time we had not encountered any resistance on the part of the enemy.
His own origin, which was partly English and partly Italian, made it easy for him to be impartial between the two white races in South Africa. For the Kaffirs he had no great tenderness. They had votes, and if they chose to sell them for brandy that was their own affair. Of what would now be called Imperialism Molteno had no trace.
About three in the afternoon the men were entrained in open trucks under a burning sun, and for some reason, at which the impetuous spirit of the General must have chafed, were kept waiting for three hours. At eight o'clock they detrained at Molteno, and thence after a short rest and a meal they started upon the night march which was intended to end at the break of day at the Boer trenches.
'He'll do well. No more was said and, as far as I can remember, I never saw Daniel Molteno again. It was some time before I had occasion to go that way when I did, I was surprised to see a new name over the shop. I went in and asked where its former proprietor was. The new shopkeeper told me that Mr. Molteno had sold his business to him. And he didn't know where Mr.
Melky laid his finger on the side of his nose. "Then you think wrong!" he said. "There'll be marriages before long for both of us but it'll not be as you suggest! There's Molteno Lodge, across the road there s'elp me, I've often seen that bit of a retreat from the top of a 'bus, but I never knew it belonged to the poor old man!"
His local supporters were "all looking out for themselves," and there was not one among them in whom he could feel any real confidence." * The present Lord Wolseley. + A favourite expression with Mrs. Carlyle. Of Molteno he made no personal complaint, and he always considered him the fittest man for his post in South Africa.
'N. B. Molteno Lodge, Maida Vale all the furniture, pictures, belongings in this are mine I have let it as a furnished residence at L12 a month, all clear, for some years past. Let at present, on same terms, rent paid quarterly, in advance, to two Chinese gentlemen, Mr. Chang Li and Mr. Chen Li good tenants." Zillah uttered another sharp exclamation and sprang to her feet.
They had been employed entrenching; now they were bundled back again towards East London. So we left Stormberg in much anger and some humiliation, and jolted away towards the open sea, where British supremacy is not yet contested by the Boer. At Molteno we picked up a hundred volunteers fine-looking fellows all eager to encounter the enemy, but much surprised at the turn events had taken.
It is not for the historian especially for a civilian historian to say a word unnecessarily to aggravate the pain of that brave man who, having done all that personal courage could do, was seen afterwards sobbing on the table of the waiting-room at Molteno, and bewailing his 'poor men. He had a disaster, but Nelson had one at Teneriffe and Napoleon at Acre, and built their great reputations in spite of it.
On February 23rd he re-occupied Molteno, and on the same day sent out a force to reconnoitre the enemy's position at Stormberg. To the end of the war they could not speak of him without tears in their eyes. He had formed a corps of scouts, consisting originally of four men, but soon expanding to seventy or eighty.
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