with them, or were understood to do so. The fighting men of both tribes, however, with the bulk of their cattle, vanished over and into the mountains, and the occupation of their locations was effected after some bloodshed. They had, however, to be pursued and punished. Had they been allowed to find an unmolested refuge in Basutoland, there would have been an end to British prestige in South Africa. Two pursuing columns were at once organised, each being under the leadership of an experienced Natal magistrate. Their little forces were entirely colonial, either enrolled volunteers or colonists who enlisted for the occasion. They numbered seventy volunteers and 1,600 natives. Captain Allison and Captain Hawkins had no easy task before them. They had to take their men up the almost inaccessible mountain sides into a region of rugged and trackless desolation that had never before been penetrated by white men-a region whose only known inhabitants in the past had been the tiny untameable Bushman, the ravening hyena, or the fabled unicorn; for there tradition had located the one-horned antelope. Somewhere in front of them, probably lying in wait amid Nature's fastnesses, for a sudden spring, was the fugitive tribe. Whatever the difficulties and dangers might be they were gladly faced, especially by the men who smarted under the aspersions cast upon them from certain quarters, as a consequence of their late reverse. The two columns carried their provisions with them packed in raw hides, on the backs of oxen which were killed and eaten as the march proceeded and their burdens were consumed.

The story of this expedition was never properly told either in official despatches or private letters. No 'special' correspondents accompanied it; no postmen or runners bore back news of it. The largest of the parties ascended the Drakenberg by the more western passes. The other advanced by the more southerly route at the sources of the Umzimkulu. Both had a merry meeting in the clouds, and then disappeared from sight and hearing, after sending to Maritzburg an assurance that the objects of the mission should be accomplished handsomely and well'—a promise that was fulfilled to the letter. And practically nothing more was heard of the expedition until it had done its work. It groped its way among the precipices and defiles, skirting the edges of brawling torrents, camping at times under the eaves of overhanging crags, scaling nameless mountain heights or scrambling into the depths of rock-strewn valleys-all void, silent

and lifeless-ever on the alert for a hidden foe, and never beset by any dread or doubt. The marvellously buoyant though often icily cold air of South African mountain-land uplifted and stimulated them. After each day's hard march they slept the sleep that follows as of right dutiful fatigue, and they rose at dawn, refreshed and confident, to resume the chase. They were not long in finding traces of the fugitives, and thus guided they passed further and further into the depths of the mystical 'Double Mountains,' the twofold mountain range that divides Natal from Basutoland.

And at last their weary quest was rewarded. One morning a native visitor apprised them that the rebels were not far ahead. They had made for Northern Basutoland, where a friendly refuge might most confidently be anticipated. With cheerful hearts, therefore, the pursuers pressed on in that direction until they reached once again the abodes of men- even though uncivilised men. The Basutos were astounded at the apparition of an armed force of white men from a quarter where Nature's barriers had hitherto been deemed impassable. The effect produced by such an exploit was in itself enough to secure a respectful reception for the heroes of it. The Cape Government, moreover, with a sympathetic alacrity which Natal still remembers with gratitude, had sent a body of 120 mounted police to the southern flank of Basutoland to prevent any retreat of the rebels in that direction. Any hope that Langalibalele may have cherished of succour from the Basutos was soon dissipated. They also loyally co-operated, and after a brief encounter the fugitives were surrounded and disarmed. Though the rebels had eluded their pursuers, it was only to be captured in the end. At the first Basuto village reached by the Natal expedition a hearty welcome awaited them, and huts were set apart for their accommodation. Happier hours have seldom been passed than were those spent that night under the thatched roofs of the native loyalists. One of the leaders had carried with him in his saddlebag, for use in case of emergency, a bottle of Hennessy's brandy. It had not been wanted either as a restorative or as a stimulant. His health and the health of all under him had been perfect. So, pretending to discover the flask amid the straw of the hut, he brought it forth and shared it with his comrades, in grateful commemoration of their safety and success.

For, to end the story, the rebels, after some discussion as to booty, were all handed over with most of their cattle and belongings VOL. VIII.-NO. 47, N.S. 26

to the Natal representatives, who thus achieved their purpose without firing a shot, and returned to Natal, with prisoners and stock, a proud and elated band. The tribe was broken up, its lands confiscated, and its leaders, tried before a special tribunal, were sentenced to banishment or imprisonment. Langalibalele himself was removed to the neighbourhood of Capetown, where a farm was set apart for him, and where he had wives, tobacco, and other comforts to lighten his lot in exile. Some years later he was allowed to return to Natal, and he ended his days in peace near Maritzburg.

It fell to my lot, as a member of the Legislature, to move a vote of thanks to all concerned in the repression of the rebellion -to Governor, officials, troops, Cape allies, and loyal natives—and never was parliamentary duty discharged with truer zest or pleasure. It was felt by the colonists that the prestige of the Government had been vindicated, that its authority had been secured for years to come. And these ends had been established and that peace had been accomplished, let me add, without a farthing's cost to the Imperial treasury, under colonial auspices and by colonial resources only. It is true that the cost to the colony was not by any means confined to the lives lost or the money spent. Both the Governor and the colonists earned obloquy and discredit. Sixteen months later the former was recalled under circumstances I have already described, while the latter continued for many a day to be vilified as monsters of cruelty and wrongdoing. Time, however, the great rectifier, has silenced these calumnies, and though Sir Benjamin Pine has passed beyond the reach of misrepresentation, his aims and his policy have been recognised as those of a far-seeing and highminded statesman. It was largely due to the steps he sanctioned in connection with these events that the native population of Natal remained, as they did, absolutely loyal to the Government during the Zulu war. Had Langalibalele been left, comparatively unpunished, in possession of his chieftainship and location, there cannot be a doubt that he would have continued to be a fermenting centre of disaffection and unrest-a connecting link in Natal between the hostile Zulus on one side and the nervous Basutos and Pondos on the other. The task which the Imperial Government had to carry out would have been enormously weighted, and the perils of the colonists terribly enhanced, during the struggle which ensued six years later.

MISS GUNTON OF POUGHKEEPSIE.

BY HENRY JAMES.

'Ir's astonishing what you take for granted!' Lady Champer had exclaimed to her young friend at an early stage; and this might have served as a sign that even then the little plot had begun to thicken. The reflection was uttered at the time the outlook of the charming American girl in whom she found herself so interested was still much in the rough. They had often met, with pleasure to each, during a winter spent in Rome; and Lily had come to her, in London, towards the end of May, with further news of a situation the dawn of which, in March and April, by the Tiber, the Arno, and the Seine, had considerably engaged her attention. The Prince had followed Miss Gunton to Florence, and then, with almost equal promptitude, to Paris, where it was both clear and comical for Lady Champer that the rigour of his uncertainty as to parental commands and remittances now detained him. This shrewd woman promised herself not a little amusement from her view of the possibilities of the case. Lily was, on the whole showing, a wonder; therefore the drama would lose nothing from her character, her temper, her tone. She was waiting this was the truth she had imparted to her clever protectress-to see if her Roman captive would find himself drawn to London. Should he really turn up there, she would, the next thing, start for America, putting him to the test of that wider range and declining to place her confidence till he should have arrived in New York at her heels. If he remained in Paris or returned to Rome, she would stay in London and, as she phrased. it, have a good time by herself. Did he expect her to go back to Paris for him? Why not, in that case, just as well go back to Rome at once? The first thing for her, Lily intimated to her London adviser, was to show what, in her position, she expected.

Her position, meanwhile, was one that Lady Champer, try as she would, had as yet neither succeeded in understanding nor in resigning herself not to understand. It was that of being extraordinarily pretty, amazingly free, and perplexingly good, and of presenting these advantages in a positively golden light. How

1 Copyright 1900 by Henry James in the United States of America.

was one to estimate a girl whose nearest approach to a drawback -that is, to an encumbrance-appeared to be a grandfather carrying on a business in an American city her ladyship had never otherwise heard of, with whom communication was all by cable and on the subject of drawing'? Expression was, on the old man's part, moreover, as concise as it was expensive, consisting as it inveterately did of but the single word 'Draw.' Lily drew, on every occasion in life, and it at least could not be said of the pair -when the 'family idea,' as embodied in America, was exposed to criticism-that they were not in touch. Mr. Gunton had given her further Mrs. Brine, to come out with her, and with this provision and the perpetual pecuniary he plainly figured-to Lily's own mind-as solicitous to the point of anxiety. Mrs. Brine's scheme of relations seemed in truth to be simpler still. There was a transatlantic 'Mr. Brine,' of whom she often spoke-and never in any other way; but she wrote for newspapers; she prowled in catacombs, visiting more than once even those of Paris; she haunted hotels; she picked up compatriots; she spoke, above all, a language that often baffled comprehension. She mattered, however, but little; she was mainly so occupied in having what Lily had likewise independently glanced at a good time by herself. It was difficult enough indeed to Lady Champer to see the wonderful girl reduced to that, yet she was a little person who kept one somehow in presence of the incalculable. Old measures and familiar rules were of no use at all with hershe had so broken the moulds and so mixed the marks. What was confounding was her disparities-the juxtaposition in her of beautiful sun-flushed heights and deep dark holes. She had none of the things that the other things implied. She dangled in the air in a manner that made one dizzy; though one took comfort, at the worst, in feeling that one was there to catch her if she fell. Falling, at the same time, appeared scarce one of her properties, and it was positive for Lady Champer at moments that if one held out one's arms one might be, after all, much more likely to be pulled up. That was really a part of the excitement of the acquaintance.

'Well,' said this friend and critic on one of the first of the London days, 'say he does, on your return to your own country, go after you how do you read, on that occurrence, the course of events?'

'Why, if he comes after me I'll have him.'