The covenant - James A. Michener [471]
It was a gallop for two days, then a canter for seven through the loveliest parts of the Orange Free State. They bivouacked for some time near Thaba Nchu and listened to De Groot tell about his first great battle, when Mzilikazi's men killed his entire family: 'I was a coward hiding in the wagons of this man's father.' And he slapped Van Doorn.
They rode in a kind of dream world, with the veld stretching in all directions, never a tree in sight, only the sweeping valleys, the lovely flat-topped hills, with now and then a herd of antelope moving against the slow motion of the horsemen. Thousands of skilled soldiers were hunting for this little group, but still they rode in comparative safety, the distances were so vast. When the meerkats spied on them, De Groot called down from his pony, 'Hurry and tell Lord Kitchener you saw us. And demand more pay.' Only the sky, and the distant hills, and the gentle sweep of the barren land 'This is earth we must keep,' De Groot told his men as they rode easily, one foot in the stirrup. 'We could ride like this forever,' Jakob said quietly to a friend. There was no war, no chase, no sudden death.
The crossing of the Orange was not especially difficult because no one dreamed that a Boer commando would try anything so preposterous as an invasion of the Cape, but when the news flashed that Paulus de Groot had forded the river between Philippolis and Colesburg, the world came to attention, and diverse reactions were voiced. Those who wished England well were disgusted that the Avenger of the Veld had been allowed to run loose yet again, while those who hoped to see England humiliated, the greater part, reveled in his escapade. It was predicted that he would head west to pick off some town like Swellendam, but instead he turned sharply east to avoid Graaff-Reinet, which would be well defended; he came at last upon his original De Groot homestead, now owned by an English family.
'Each of you, select two horses,' he told the Englishman.
'What are you going to do?'
'Take two horses and anything you especially prize. Ride to Grahams-town.'
'What are you going to do?'
'This was my farm. My family's farm. And I'm going to burn it to the ground.'
'That's insanity.'
'I'll give you thirty minutes to pick the things you want. You women, gather your personal possessions.' When the Englishman protested, he said quietly, 'That's more than your Lord Kitchener gave my wife.'
When the people were herded away, he set fire to everything, adding to the combustibles when the flames threatened to go out. When the farm was reduced to ashes, he rode to the next one and then the next. At last he told Van Doorn, 'Over that hill, if I remember. I was only a child then, and maybe I don't remember. But over that hill. . .' When they reached the top there was nothing, and De Groot said, 'I was afraid. But aren't those tracks? It'll be the next hill, maybe.'
At the top of the fourth hill Jakob van Doorn saw, for the first time in his life, the splendid farm put together by his ancestors: 'I think Mai Adriaan must have started the place. The house was built by Lodevicus the Hammer. Those additions were Tjaart's, God bless that fighting man. He'd understand.'
'When this one goes up,' De Groot said with soaring enthusiasm, 'all the Cape Boers will rally to us. It'll be a whole new war.'
'All who intend to are already riding with our commandos,' Jakob warned. 'There'll be no more.'
'Of course there will. They're patriotic . . .'
'They have money, Paulus, not patriotism. I was here, remember?'
'At this farm?'
'No, but at the Cape. They talk politics, not war.'
As the commando came down the hill, the men began to shout, and from the farm buildings numerous people appeared. 'Get ready to leave!' the Venloo men cried as they began to light their torches, but before General de Groot could give the signal, a woman in a gray linsey-woolsey dress appeared at the door of the principal house.
'What do you want?' she asked as the men approached.
'I am General de