Farewell and God be with you, as I hope He will be with me and Marie and the rest of us trek-Boers.

The bearer will overtake us with your answer at our first outspan.
"'HENRI MARAIS.'" "Well," said my father with a sigh, "I suppose I must accept his trust, though why he should choose an 'accursed Englishman' with whom he has quarrelled violently to collect his debts instead of one of his own beloved Boers, I am sure I do not know.

I will go and write to him.
Allan, see that the messenger and his horse get something to eat." I nodded and went to the man, who was one of those that had defended Maraisfontein with me, a good fellow unless he got near liquor.
"Heer Allan," he said, looking round to see that we were not overheard, "I have a little writing for you also," and he produced from his pouch a note that was unaddressed.
I tore it open eagerly.

Within was written in French, which no Boer would understand if the letter fell into his hands: "Be brave and faithful, and remember, as I shall.

Oh! love of my heart, adieu, adieu!" This message was unsigned; but what need was there of signature?
I wrote an answer of a sort that may be imagined, though what the exact words were I cannot remember after the lapse of nearly half a century.
Oddly enough, it is the things I said which I recall at such a distance of time rather than the things which I wrote, perhaps because, when once written, my mind being delivered, troubled itself with them no more.