THE APIARY, HARMONY.[ToList]
In a few moments all was confusion.
The servants rushed about frantically, in their endeavours to bring the fowls and calves under shelter in time.
The two women took refuge in the house, closing the doors and windows, while they watched the consternation and disorder in the camp.
Fortunately there was only one horse in the smithy at the time, a beautiful chestnut mare belonging to the Provost-Marshal, Major Poore, so Mrs. van Warmelo was told afterwards.
The soldiers seemed to lose their heads entirely. They ran away, not into their tents, but right away into the "koppies" on the other side of the railway line.
The bee-keeper cut the halter with which the unfortunate horse was tethered to a post, then he too took refuge.
What followed was pitiful to behold and will never be forgotten by the women, helplessly, and as if fascinated by the scene, watching from their windows.
The infuriated bees, deprived of all other living things on which to wreak their vengeance, turned, in their thousands, on the hapless mare, which stood unmoved, as horses do, when lashed by hail or panic-stricken under flames.