t cheery meal, interspersed with a good deal of chaff, one
of his friends remarking to me that it was probably the only occasion
during the last six months in South Africa that General French had been
caught asleep.

The following day, Sunday, we attended a very impressive military
service, at which Lord Roberts and his Staff, in full uniform, were
present, and at the conclusion the whole congregation sang the National
Anthem with the organ accompaniment. The volume of sound, together with
the well-loved tune, was one not soon to be forgotten.

In the evening I had a visit from a stranger, who announced himself to
be Mr. Barnes, correspondent to the _Daily Mail_. This gentleman handed
me a letter from my sister, Lady Georgiana Curzon, dated Christmas Day
of the previous year, which had at last reached me under peculiar
circumstances. It appeared that, when my resourceful sister heard I had
been taken prisoner by the Boers, she decided the best way of
communicating with me would be through the President of the South
African Republic, via Delagoa Bay. She had therefore written him a
letter as follows:

"_Christmas Day, 1899._

"Lady Georgiana Curzon presents her compliments to His Honour
President Kruger, and would be very much obliged if he would
give orders that the enclosed letter should be forwarded to
her sister, Lady Sarah Wilson, who, according to the latest
reports, has been taken prisoner by General Snyman."

In this letter was enclosed the one now handed to me by Mr. Barnes. The
President, in the novel experience of receiving a letter from an English
lady, had sent for the American Consul, and had handed him both epistles
without a remark of any kind, beyond asking him to deal with them. Thus
the missive finally reached its destination. This visitor had hardly
departed when another was announced in the person of a Dr. Scholtz,
whom, with his wife, I had met at Groot Schuurr as Mr. Rhodes's friends.
This gentleman, who is since dead, had always seemed to me somewhat of
an enigmatical personage. German by origin, he combined strong
sympathies with the Boers and fervent Imperialism, and I was therefore
always a little doubtful as to his real sentiments. He came very kindly
on this occasion to pay a friendly call, but also to inform me that he
was playing a prominent part in the abortive peace negotiations which at
that stage of the war were being freely talked about. Whether he ha