first of our sex to come in. I shall, however, never forget how kindly
he spoke nor the inexpressible sadness of his face. I told him how quiet
everything appeared to be along the road we had taken, and how civil
were all the Boers we had met. At this he turned to the guest whose
departure he was speeding, and said, with a grave smile, "That is
thanks to you, General." And then the cortege rode on. On reflection, I
decided, rather from what Lord Roberts had left unsaid than from his
actual words, that if we had asked leave to travel home via Pretoria, it
would have been refused.

The rest of that day and the next we spent in seeing the town under its
new auspices, and it certainly presented far more to interest a visitor
than on the occasion of my last visit in 1896. In a suburb known as
Sunny Side was situated Lord Roberts's headquarters, at a house known as
the Residency. Close by was a charming villa inhabited for the nonce by
General Brabazon, Lord Dudley, Mr. John Ward, and Captain W. Bagot. The
surroundings of these dwellings were exceedingly pretty, with shady
trees, many streams, and a background of high hills crowned by forts,
which latter were just visible to the naked eye. From Sunny Side we were
conducted over some of these fortifications: there was Schantz's Kop
Fort, of very recent construction, and looking to the uninitiated of
tremendous strength, with roomy bomb-proof shelters. Here a corner of
one of the massive entrance pillars had been sharply severed off by a
British lyddite shell. Later we inspected Kapper Kop Fort, the highest
of all, where two British howitzer guns, firing a 280-pound shell, had
found a resting-place. Surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge, the view
from this fort was magnificent. The Boers were in the act of making a
double-wire entanglement round it, and had evidently meant to offer
there a stubborn resistance, when more prudent counsels prevailed, and
they had left their work half finished, and decamped, carrying off all
their ammunition. In the town itself General French and his Staff had
established themselves at the Netherlands Club, from which resort the
members had been politely ejected.

To outward appearances, civil as well as military business was being
transacted in Pretoria with perfect smoothness, in spite of the
proximity of the enemy. The yeomanry were acting as police both there
and in Johannesburg. The gaol, of which we had a glimpse, was crowded
with 240 pris