Therefore, as a matter of precaution, they had been put under arrest and their arms taken from them as mine had been.

What the commandant said, however, was that he took these somewhat high-handed measures in order to be sure that they, the Prinsloos and the Meyers, should be ready on the following morning to ride with him and the prisoner to the main camp, where the great council might wish to interrogate them.
One concession, however, the vrouw had won from the commandant, who, knowing what was about to happen to me, had not, I suppose, the heart to refuse.

It was that my wife and she might visit me and give me food on the stipulation that they both left the house where I was confined by ten o'clock that night.
So it came to this, that if anything was to be done, these two women and a Hottentot must do it, since they could hope for no help in their plans.

Here I should add that the vrouw told Marie in Hans's presence that she had thought of attacking the commandant as to this matter of my proposed shooting by Pereira.

On reflection, however, she refrained for two reasons, first because she feared lest she might only make matters worse and rob me of my sole helpers, and secondly for fear lest she should bring about the death of Hans, to whom the story would certainly be traced.
As he was the solitary witness to the plot, it seemed to her that he would scarcely be allowed to escape to repeat it far and wide.
Especially was this so, as the unexplained death of a Hottentot, suspected of treachery like his master, was not a matter that would have been thought worth notice in those rough and bloody times.