The Petticoat Commando | Page 5

the garden was
laden with its wealth of fruit and flowers; and of these friends of the
family many figure in these pages, while some do not appear at all,
having had no part in the stirring events with which this book deals.
Amongst the most frequent visitors at Harmony were the
Consul-General for the Netherlands, Mr. Domela-Nieuwenhuis and his
wife, and other members of the Diplomatic Corps with their families.
These friendships had been formed before the war, and it was only
natural that they should have been strengthened and deepened by the
trying circumstances of the years during which the country was
convulsed by such unspeakable tragedies.
Although the position held by these men debarred them from taking
any part whatsoever in the events of the war, their sympathies were
undoubtedly with the people of South Africa. They suffered with and
for their friends, and they must frequently have been weighed down by
a sense of their powerlessness to alleviate the distress around them,
which they were forced to witness; but they were, without exception,
men of high integrity, and observed with strict honour the obligations
laid upon them by their position of trust.
Needless to say, they were not aware of the conspiracies which were
carried on at Harmony; to this day they are ignorant of the dangers to
which the van Warmelos were exposed and the hazardous nature of
many of the enterprises in which mother and daughter were engaged,
and I look forward with delight to the privilege of presenting each of
these gentlemen with a copy of this book, in which they will find so
many revelations of an unexpected and startling nature.
It is not my intention to go into the details of the first encounters with
the enemy, nor to describe the siege-comedy of Mafeking, where
Baden-Powell, as principal actor, maintained a humorous

correspondence with the Boers; nor of Kimberley, where Cecil Rhodes
said he felt as safe as in Piccadilly; nor of Dundee, where the Boers
were said to have found a large number of brand-new side-saddles,
originally destined to be used by British officers on arrival at the capital,
where they hoped to take the ladies of Pretoria riding, but ultimately
consigned to the flames by the indignant brothers and lovers of those
very ladies; nor of the fine linen, silver, cut-glass, and fingerbowls
found and destroyed by the Boers in the luxurious British camp at
Dundee. I shall not dwell upon the glorious victories of the first months,
the capture of armoured trains, the blowing up of bridges, the besieging
of towns, the arrival in Pretoria of the first British prisoners and the
long sojourn of British officers in captivity in the Model School--from
where, incidentally, Winston Churchill escaped in an ingenious
way--and the crushing news of the first Boer reverses at Dundee and
Elandslaagte.
Are these historical events not fully recorded in other books, by other
writers more competent than myself?
A three-volume book would hardly contain the experiences Hansie had,
first in the Volks Hospital in Pretoria and later in the State Girls' School,
as volunteer nurse, but I shall pass over the events of the first eight
months of war under Boer martial law and introduce my reader to that
period in May 1900 shortly before the British took possession of the
capital.
The two remaining brothers van Warmelo were at this time retreating
with the now completely demoralised Boer forces, before the terrific
onslaughts made upon them by the enemy.
Blow after blow was delivered by the English in quiet succession on
their forced march from Bloemfontein to Pretoria, and it was on May
25th that the roar of Boer cannon reached the capital for the first time.
Looking south-east from Harmony, Mrs. and Miss van Warmelo were
able to watch the Boer commandos pouring into the town--straggling
would be a better word, for there was no one in command, and the
weary men on their jaded horses passed in groups of twos and threes,

and in small contingents of from fifty to a hundred.
Mrs. van Warmelo fully expected to see her sons among the number
and made preparations to welcome them, for under the roar of cannon
the fatted turkey had been killed and roasted and a large plum-pudding
made.
Suddenly two men on horseback turned out of the wayside and rode
straight up to the gate.
"Perhaps these men are bringing us news of our boys," Mrs. van
Warmelo said to her daughter, who was watching them with anxiety at
her heart.
The men dismounted at the gate and walked up to the two women,
leading their horses slowly over the grass.
No one spoke until the men were a few yards off, when Hansie
exclaimed, with unbounded joy and relief, "Why, they are