oners, but was under the competent direction of the usual
English under-official, who had been in the service of the Transvaal,
and who had quietly stepped into the shoes of his chief, a Dutchman,
when the latter bolted with Kruger. This prison was where the Raiders
and the Reformers had been in durance vile, and the gallows were pointed
out to us with the remark that, during the last ten years, they had only
been once used, their victim being an Englishman. A Dutchman, who had
been condemned to death during the same period for killing his wife, had
been reprieved.

In the same way the Natal Bank and the Transvaal National Bank were
being supervised by their permanent officials, men who had been at their
posts during the war, and who, although under some suspicions, had not
been removed. At the latter bank the manager told us how President
Kruger had sent his Attorney-General to fetch the gold in coins and bar
just before he left for Delagoa Bay, and how it was taken away on a
trolley. The astute President actually cheated his people of this
bullion, as he had already forced them to accept paper tokens for the
gold, which he then acquired and removed. We also saw the Raad
Saals--especially interesting from being exactly as they were left after
the last session on May 7--Kruger's private room, and the Council
Chamber. These latter were fine apartments, recently upholstered by
Maple, and littered with papers, showing every evidence of the hurried
departure of their occupants. Finally, specially conducted by Winston,
we inspected the so-called "Bird-cage," where all the English officers
had been imprisoned, and the "Staat Model" School, from where our
cicerone had made his escape. These quarters must have been a
particularly disagreeable and inadequate residence.

After a day in Pretoria we realized that, in spite of the shops being
open and the hotels doing a roaring trade, notwithstanding the
marvellous organization visible on all sides, events were not
altogether satisfactory; and one noted that the faces of those behind
the scenes were grave and serious. Louis Botha, it was evident, was
anything but a defeated foe. This gentleman had actually been in the
capital when the English entered, and he was then only sixteen miles
away. During the previous week a severe action had been fought with him
at Diamond Hill, where the English casualties had been very heavy. The
accounts of this engagement, as then related, had a touc