Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill (58 page)

Even walking at a leisurely pace
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 68. There is an old story that claims that when describing his escape, Churchill said he swam the “mighty Apies.” The story has become a source of hilarity and ridicule among South Africans, who know the thin, narrow river, but Churchill himself said that it was the product of a reporter’s exaggeration, and he had never described the river in those terms.

“I was in the heart”
: Ibid.

He was also painfully aware
: Ibid.

“He had given me water”
: Ibid.

“Still, it might be only winding”
: Ibid.

“When hope had departed”
: Ibid.

“A wild feeling of exhilaration”
: Ibid.

“I would board a train in motion”
: Ibid.

“I thought of Paul Bultitude’s escape”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 273.

“suddenly and entirely altered”
: Girouard,
History of the Railways During the War in South Africa
, 9–10.

From one day to the next
: Ibid., 10–11.

“My escape must be known at dawn”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 68.

When the engine pulled away
: Ibid.

“the consciousness of oppressive difficulties”
: Ibid., 69.

“cosy hiding place”
: Ibid.

“You could lift the heat”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 132.

“manifested an extravagant interest”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 70.

“If the human race ever reaches”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Jan. 14, 1897, CAC.

“I accumulated in those years”
: Churchill,
My Early Life
, 113–14.

“It seemed good to let the mind”
: Ibid., 117.

CHAPTER 20: “TO TAKE MY LEAVE”

“a full dose of opprobrious epithets”
: Haldane, diary, 140I.

When a soldier-servant stepped
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 33.

“Cox’s should be instructed”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Nov. 18, 1899, CAC.

“I won’t travel 2d again”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Dec. 27, 1891, quoted in Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 171.

“You are really too extravagant”
: Randolph to WSC, March 29, 1892, CAC.

Any money they needed
: Churchill,
My Early Life
, 105.

“Unfortunately, he was an inquisitive”
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 33.

“Some gave him no answer”
: Hofmeyr,
Story of My Captivity
, 134.

“gently and apologetically”
: Ibid., 134–35.

“Consternation is now changed into panic”
: Ibid., 135.

“in a great rage”
: Ibid., 135–36.

On the envelope, Churchill could not resist
: Sandys,
Churchill
, 95.

“So great was the Government’s”
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 34.

“It seemed to me”
: Hofmeyr,
Story of My Captivity
, 132.

“Vengeance was now”
: Ibid., 136–37.

“We were subjected”
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 35.

Additional sentries were added
: Ibid., 34.

“must have bribed the guards”
: Marie de Souza, diary, Dec. 13, 1899.

The Boers launched a massive search
: Marie de Souza, diary, Jonathan de Souza’s notes, Dec. 15, 1899.

“there is reason to believe”
: Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1089.

“As there was a 7 o’clock”
: Ibid., 2:1089–90.

“Well gentlemen”
: Mrs. T. J. Rodda, “Memoires,”
Pretoriana
, no. 20 (1956).

As soon as Hans Malan
: Marie de Souza, diary, Jonathan de Souza’s notes, Dec. 15, 1899.

“Louis had an awful row”
: Marie de Souza, diary, Dec. 13, 1899.

“If I accept his word”
: Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1086.

“It is certainly an odd coincidence”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 300.

“At Frere we are now spending”
: Atkins,
Relief of Ladysmith
, 121–22.

“It is a beautiful job”
: Ibid., 122–23.

“They pulled drawers out of chests”
: Ibid., 124.

“a melancholy heap”
: Ibid., 125.

“get extremely close to others”
: Quoted in Meintjes,
General Louis Botha
, 43–44.

It was the simplest sort of tent
: Pakenham,
Boer War
, 268.

In fact, even he was struggling
: Ibid., 267.

“God will fight for you”
: Ibid., 269–70.

That night, with just eight hundred men
: Ibid., 270.

“Only this we know”
: Atkins,
Relief of Ladysmith
, 133.

CHAPTER 21: ALONE

“The western clouds flushed”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 70.

As Churchill cautiously stepped
: Ibid.; Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 276.

“I saw myself leaving the train”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 277.

“I could board some truck”
: Ibid.

“to keep body and soul together”
: Ibid.

“My plan began to crumble”
: Ibid.

As soon as he began his journey
: Ibid., 278.

“no trains are to run after 7 p.m.”
:
Detailed History of the Railways in the South African War
, 104.

“fine and sure”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 278.

“There was nothing for it but to plod on”
: Ibid., 279.

“I had heard”
: Ibid.

“the Boer does not recognize”
: Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill,
Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa
, 92.

Churchill had had a long, spirited conversation
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 47–49.

Although he was only twenty-three
: South African History Online, Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje; Comaroff, introduction to
Boer War Diary of Sol T. Plaatje
.

During the siege of Mafeking
: Warwick,
Black People and the South African War
, 35.

“It looked like meat”
: Comaroff,
Boer War Diary of Sol T. Plaatje
, 124.

“The attitude of the natives”
: Steevens,
From Capetown to Ladysmith
, 14.

“They might give me food”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 279.

“Suddenly without the slightest reason”
: Ibid., 280.

“It was certainly by no process of logic”
: Ibid.

“the shimmering gloom of the veldt”
: Ibid., 281.

CHAPTER 22:
“WIE IS DAAR?”

Churchill stood in the moonlight
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 282.

“I am Winston Churchill”
: Ibid.

“They had been turned out of work”
: Steevens,
From Capetown to Ladysmith
, 7.

“They spoke now of intolerable grievance”
: Ibid.