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' And for the first time young Detlev heard the strategy of his life spelled out-and he compre- hended every word. It would, after all, be rather ugly to have stolen a kingdom in order to bring it civiliza- tion if that kingdom had once been civilized. 'More than all the men on both sides, we have lost our children. When De Groot saw this lad-the one who had dared to dance with Sybilla, who had kissed Johanna van Doorn in the barn-and witnessed th

' Sometimes late at night, when he was well under, he would grow sentimental: 'Worst thing ever happened to the English soldier, they put him in this damned olive-drab. He did not know where he was running to, but he was certain that there would ' be a welcome for a sturdy lad who showed pro- mise of becoming a good warrior. In her forties maybe, fifties, and looks it. Indeed, it was difficult to find a more homogeneous, handsome and dedicated body of people than those Afrikaners nurtured on the veld and in the valleys of the continent's southern tip.