Hereupon President Steyn remarked that there was still a fourth: viz. To insist upon our cause being decided in Europe by persons empowered, and sent thither by us.
"But," he added in a sad tone, "I am like one who had been wounded to death. I can no longer take part in the struggle, and have therefore perhaps no right to speak any more. To-day I must, on account of my serious illness, resign my position, and now the matter is in your hands and in those of the Representatives of the People!"
It was a hard thing to hear those words: "I am as one who has been wounded to death." Our hearts were broken at the thought that the President could not wield the sword. He had in the long and dreadful struggle lived each day on the very summit of determination and of courage. Never, not even when he saw that his bodily strength was rapidly failing, had he shown the slightest sign of discouragement.
And now he could no longer take part in the struggle. Many things in this war had weighed heavily upon us; but the fate of President Steyn broke our hearts.
Having conversed together some moments longer, the Governments proceeded to the tent of assembly, and there laid the letter of the commission before the Delegates.
It was a blow for these Representatives of the People, a blow which, though it did not come unexpectedly, was nevertheless overwhelming. It stunned them like the thunder-clap which, expected from moment to moment, at last explodes.
The clouds lowered, and their sombre shadow lay upon the meeting until the end of the discussions.
In the first place, the commission was asked for explanations regarding the various articles of the British proposal, to which "Yes" or "No" was now to be the answer. It was as if they were seeking for something in the proposal that could not be found there.
There were all sorts of conditions in it, but all were on one condition: The Republics must surrender their Independence!
During the adjournment in the afternoon the Free State Delegates met in the tent of General de Wet to accept there the resignation of President Steyn. They received a letter from him, in which he said that he was obliged to do this on account of his serious illness. He further stated that, according to a law which gave him that power, he had appointed General C. R. de Wet as Acting State President.