ld us that it
was a preconcerted signal, and that, if they had been in possession of
the town, they were to have answered by rifle-fire, when the Boers would
have marched in. These proved to be the last shells that were fired into
Mafeking.

The same morning at breakfast I sat opposite to Commandant Eloff, who
was the President's grandson, and had on my right a most polite French
officer, who could not speak a word of English, Dutch, or German, so it
was difficult to understand how he made himself understood by his then
companions-in-arms. In strong contrast to this affable and courteous
gentleman was Eloff, of whom we had heard so much as a promising
Transvaal General. A typical Boer of the modern school, with curiously
unkempt hair literally standing on end, light sandy whiskers, and a
small moustache, he was wearing a sullen and dejected expression on his
by no means stupid, but discontented and unprepossessing, face. This
scion of the Kruger family did not scruple to air his grievances or
disclose his plans with regard to the struggle of the previous day. That
he was brilliantly assisted by the French and German freelances was as
surely demonstrated as the fact of his having been left more or less in
the lurch by his countrymen when they saw that to get into Mafeking was
one thing, but to stay there or get out of it again was quite a
different matter. In a few words he told us, in fairly good English, how
it had been posted up in the laager, "We leave for Mafeking to-night: we
will breakfast at Dixon's Hotel to-morrow morning"; how he had sent back
to instruct Reuter's agent to cable the news that Mafeking had been
taken as soon as the fort was in their hands; how he had left his camp
with 400 volunteers, and how, when he had counted them by the light of
the blazing stadt, only 240 remained; moreover, that the 500 additional
men who were to push in when the fort was taken absolutely failed
him.[34] He was also betrayed in that the arranged forward movement all
round the town, which was to have taken place simultaneously with his
attack, was never made. The burghers instead contented themselves by
merely firing senseless volleys from their trenches, which constituted
all the assistance he actually received. This, and much more, he told us
with bitter emphasis, while the French officer conversed unconcernedly
in the intervals of his discourse about the African climate, the
weather, and the Paris Exhibition; finally ob