A Woman's Part in a Revolution Part 8

As in the preliminary examination, the Court proceedings were conducted in the Dutch language, an unfamiliar tongue to a majority of the accused.

After the despatch of some minor matters, Mr. Wessels, counsel for the defence, made his address to the Court, closing by reading the written statement of the four leaders, and asking the clemency of the Court.

He made no reference or protest to the tribunal as const.i.tuted--a Court presided over by a Judge _not a_ citizen of the country whose sovereignty had been offended by the treasonable acts charged.

Mr. Wessels was followed by the State Attorney, Dr. Coster, in a bitter and vindictive speech.

He demanded that the prisoners at the bar should be punished under the _Roman Dutch Law_, and that the four leaders should receive the _death_ penalty.

This demand of the State Attorney was apparently a surprise to Mr.

Wessels, for he sprung to his feet in an excited manner and protested most vigorously against the demand of Dr. Coster; his language and manner were such as to impress many present that it was provoked by a breach of good faith.

At the conclusion of the speech of the State Attorney, Gregorowsky (the imported Judge) summed up the case at length, and held that the prisoners were guilty of high treason as charged in the indictment, and that the Roman Dutch Law governed in such cases; and that the sentences imposed would be in accordance therewith.

The Sheriff then with a loud voice commanded silence whilst the sentence of death was p.r.o.nounced.

A deep hush fell upon the Court-room--a profound, breathless silence that became oppressive before the next official utterances disturbed it.

'Lionel Phillips, George Farrar, Francis Rhodes, John Hays Hammond!'

called the Registrar.

In response these four were singled out from the rest of the prisoners and conducted to the new dock.

It was the Registrar who again spoke.

'Lionel Phillips, have you any legal reasons to urge why sentence of death should not be pa.s.sed upon you, according to law?'

'No,' was the response.

This was followed by the sentence.

In like manner, Farrar and Rhodes were interrogated and sentenced.

Mr. Hammond was then called to his feet and the same formal question asked.

Although pale and weak from protracted illness, Mr. Hammond responded in a firm voice to the Registrar's question.

The Judge, then addressing the prisoner, said: 'John Hays Hammond, it is my painful duty to pa.s.s sentence of death upon you.

'I am only applying the punishment which is meted out and laid down according to law, leaving it to his Honour the State President, and the Executive Council, to show you any mercy which may lie in their power.

'May the magnanimity shown by his Honour the State President, and this Government, to the whole world, during the recent painful events be also shown to you.

'I have nothing to do with that, however.

'I can only say, that in any other country you would not have a claim on their mercy. The sentence of the Court is, that you be taken from this place where you are now, and be conveyed to the jail at Pretoria, or any such other jail in this Republic as may be appointed by law, to be kept there till a time and place of execution shall be appointed by lawful authority, that you be taken to the place of execution to be there hanged by the neck till you are dead.

'May Almighty G.o.d have mercy on your soul!'

Whilst the sentences were being pa.s.sed upon the four leaders the auditors were wrought up to the highest pitch; sobs were heard on every side, tears were on many cheeks, and even stolid old Boers were seen to weep. One man was carried from the room in a fit.

The four Reform leaders, who had borne themselves during this trying time in a brave and fearless manner, then stepped out of the dock firmly and unhesitatingly, and were taken to the Pretoria jail.

The other fifty-nine prisoners were then called to the bar and sentenced each to pay a fine of ten thousand dollars, and to suffer two years' imprisonment.

Thus ended this remarkable trial, a judicial trial unprecedented in the annals of jurisprudence.

A mockery of justice and a travesty upon civilisation.[9]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 9: The foregoing regarding the trial and sentence of the Reformers is from information derived from eye-witnesses and the local Press.]

XI

By a strange providence Betty and I missed the early train. I had not reckoned on the delay in dressing which sorrow and fatigue could occasion.

The paper had announced that the sentence was to be given at noon.

Though I had no intention of being present in the Court-room, I wished to be within reach of my husband in case he should need me. We took the local train which left Johannesburg at 10.30.

Our journey came to an end. I saw Mr. Rose Innes and Dr. Scholtz on the platform.

'Is it the death sentence?'

Mr. Rose Innes, with both hands on my shoulders to keep me from falling, said 'Yes.'

There were many other friends, I have since learned, who were there to receive me. I have a hazy recollection of Mr. Barnato, good kind-hearted 'Barney,' begging me 'not to fret'; that he had brought my husband to Africa and he meant to stand by him till he got out of Africa. Mrs. Clement and Betty remained beside me. The day was without hours to me, a dry aching stretch of time; I had no tears to shed!

At some time in the afternoon Mrs. Joel brought me a flower and a note from my husband, beseeching me to keep up a brave heart, and a.s.suring me that he was all right and as comfortable as was possible under the circ.u.mstances.

After the death sentence had been p.r.o.nounced and the Court dismissed, Mrs. Joel, with woman's thoughtfulness, put a flask of brandy in her pocket and started for the prison. In the confusion of receiving the prisoners she managed to slip in and went at once to the condemned cell. Her visit was a G.o.d-send to the four unhappy men, who were much worn by months of anxiety, ill-health, and this final strain of the death sentence. They were bearing up wonderfully well, she said.

One of the lawyers came and sat at the end of my sofa. He burst into tears. 'We've been played! we've been played!' he exclaimed, with vehemence. Remembering how the lawyers for the Reformers had muddled everything from the beginning of the trial, how they had conscientiously and persistently walked into every trap laid for them, I sat upright to look squarely into his face. 'My G.o.d! when haven't you been played?'

The effect of the death sentence on Johannesburg was extreme: all shops and the Stock Exchange were closed, and the flags of the town were placed at half mast.

This, from the 'Standard and Diggers' News'--a tribute from the enemy's paper--goes to my heart:--

'One respects the probity of the man who, dangerously ill and totally unfit for the hardship of a prison, preferred to take his stand in the dock, rather than sacrifice his self-respect by flight from Cape Town; Mr. Hammond has worthily upheld the reputation of a nation which claims its sons as men who "never run away."'

It was decided by the Executive this same night to commute the death sentence, but this was not communicated to the condemned men until the following morning. The night of suspense pa.s.sed under the eye of the death watch with a dim light burning was a needless cruelty; it made the President's subsequent magnanimity more dramatic, but with that I naturally felt no sympathy.

I have often been asked since if I did not realise that the Boers would never have _dared_ execute my husband? And many dear friends who were thousands of miles away a.s.sure me now that they never had a moment's real apprehension for his safety. We however, who were in Pretoria, at the time, a helpless handful in the power of a primitive population of narrow experience, a people inflamed by long years of racial feud and recent victory, were by no means so sure that all would end well. Two prominent men, standing high in authority, confessed to me later that they were most anxious and fearful of results, although at the time their sustaining support helped to keep my body and soul together. _The gallows was prepared, and the order was to hang the four victims simultaneously_.