One day the ‘Star’ (in a third edition) announced the great decision was at last concluded. The sixty-three Reformers were to be divided into four groups and sentenced in lots. Ten were to be liberated because of ill-health. Some were to be imprisoned twelve months, others five, and still others three months. The four leaders were sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment, which, if carried out, was equivalent to death. However, this sentence was provisional, and it was understood petitions would be entertained.

This news was first taken into the jail by two wives who had outrun the messenger. My husband says that when he saw Mrs. X. throw herself weeping and speechless into her husband’s arms, he thought ’it was all up with him.’

X. wasn’t half the offender he was, and the sentence was evidently something too dreadful to tell. Mr. X. was one of the three months’ men, I believe.

These sentences, although unpopular, relieved to a certain extent the awful strain. But what was Johannesburg’s wrath to hear two days later that the sentences were not for the periods mentioned, but that at the expiration of these periods the prisoners could make fresh applications to be again considered! This was juggling with human souls! Everybody believed it to be the work of Dr. Leyds. A man more execrated than Dr. Leyds, I believe, does not live!

Three more weeks of cruel suspense followed.

Mr. Chamberlain continued to tumble down the Boer back stairs head over heels, yelling out excuses as he descended. He publicly denied on the 29th that Great Britain had promised to protect the Reformers, and added that they were not being unfairly treated. I will never make statesmen of my sons. I’d rather set them to ploughing.

Mark Twain came to the Rand. He visited the men at Pretoria. My husband did the honours of the prison, and introduced him to the Reformers. He talked a long while to them, sitting on a dry goods box. Expressed his satisfaction at finding only one journalist in the crowd, and no surprise that the lawyers were largely represented. He assured them that they were to be congratulated and envied, although they did not know it. There was no place one was so safe from interruption as in a jail. He recalled to their minds Cervantes and Columbus it was an honour to share captivity with such men as these.

They have sent another member of the Executive away to the baths, and later his absence will be given as an excuse for delay.

MAY 30. All the Reformers with the exception of Davies and Sampson, and the four leaders, are released after paying ten thousand dollars each, and giving their oath to abstain in future from discussing or participating in Transvaal politics.

JUNE. Meetings are called by the labourers on the Rand. They send a monster petition to Pretoria. The miners and mechanics also send a petition. The famous Innes petition is being circulated all over South Africa, and the mayors of all the large towns are preparing to go in a body to Pretoria to present their petitions for the release of the leaders. The President promises and postpones from day to day. The retention of the leaders is acknowledged to be only a question of the amount of fine.

An influential deputation from the Cape Town branch of the Africander Bond wait upon President Kruger, and a petition signed by sixty members of the Cape Parliament is read to him. Another deputation comes from the Chamber of Commerce. The Mayor of Durban forwards through the Colonial Secretary a petition bearing 1,250 names, and the Kimberley branch of the Bond send a petition. Nothing comes of it all. The President appoints the 7th to be a day of humiliation and prayer, and Dr. Leyds doubles his bodyguard.

JUNE 10. The whole of South Africa is appealing to President Kruger to let the leaders free. The entire white population two millions of people give voice to this desire and hope of United South Africa. One hundred and fifty mayors, representing 200 towns and many of the rural districts, are in Pretoria waiting for audience with the Executive Council.

This evening, Thursday, June 11, the leaders were given their liberty after paying each a fine of 125,000 dollars, and taking an oath to abstain from taking part in the politics of the Transvaal. Colonel Rhodes refused, being an English officer, to take the oath, and was banished, not to appear again in the Transvaal, under pain of death.

The Executive then politely announced its decision to receive the Mayoral delegates on Saturday morning next. Perhaps the Mayors were not mad! Some of these men had trekked for days in ox-wagons before reaching the railroad to take train for Pretoria. A large banquet was given in their honour. They insisted upon the liberated leaders being invited as guests but those criminals, leaders, and instigators did not attend, deeming it injudicious under the circumstances.

My husband flew to me, who am still kept indoors. He came with a light in his face I had not seen for months. ‘We are free!’

JUNE 12. This is a gala day in Johannesburg. Everybody is joyous Kruger’s name is cheered everywhere. Several thousand people were at the station to receive the leaders. Messrs. Phillips and Farrar were the only two left of the four to step off the train. They were caught up shoulder-high and carried by the crowd. Cheers rent the air. The horses were unyoked from their victoria, and willing hands grasped the shafts; and like returning conquerors, instead of criminals, these instigators were dragged triumphantly down the heart of the town followed by a vociferous multitude.

As the invited guests of Cape Colony we travelled on a special train to Cape Town by ‘we,’ I mean a dozen or two Reformers with their families. The heartfelt ringing cheers as we pulled out of the station I can never forget. The cheers again at Bloemfontein and the strangers who came forward to shake hands and congratulate have enriched my life. One man at a way station in the Free State rode up shouting:

‘Where is the American, John Hays Hammond?’ My husband came forward. ’Mr. Hammond, I have come miles from an ostrich farm to shake hands with you. You are a white man, and Americans are proud of you!’

The Mayor of Cape Town received us, and dear friends were there to tell us with brimming eyes of their joy in our release.