She may have been right, or she may have been wrong, but in weighing her decision it must always be borne in mind that she was, and until the end remained, in utter ignorance of Marie's heroic design to go to her death in place of me.
So the two women and the Hottentot proceeded to mature the plans which I have outlined.

One other alternative, however, Hans did suggest.

It was that they should try to drug the guards with some of the medicated drink that was meant for me, and that then Marie, I and he should slip away and get down to the river, there to hide in the weeds.

Thence, perhaps, we might escape to Port Natal where lived Englishmen who would protect us.
Of course this idea was hopeless from the first.

The moonlight was almost as bright as day, and the veld quite open for a long way round, so that we should certainly have been seen and re-captured, which of course would have meant instant death.