lay resting against my saddle, I heard an old Boer telling of
the courage and hopefulness among the burghers from whom he came. They
talked of nothing but peace. It was their belief that a European
Sovereign on marriage may make a request which must be granted. He may
even ask a million pounds or somebody's head, and cannot be refused. So,
they said, Queen Wilhelmina had risen to make her speech at her wedding,
and had requested absolute independence for the Republics. The Kings and
Princes were against it, but could not break the old custom, and
therefore peace would soon reign over our country. But such talk of
'peace' was an exception, not the rule. After the terrible experience of
the last months, we had become resigned to our fate, and did not try to
anticipate the future. We knew that we must fight with courage and
energy, and the rest we left in God's hands. We had ceased to be curious
about the plans of our Generals, which were never made known to us.
Exhausted in body and spirit, we took no account of time. It was all
one to us whether it were morning, noon or night; whether we had to
march one, two, or three hours longer; whether we had to march at all,
or to remain where we were. But we were not demoralized, not unnerved.
An overworked horse allows himself to be caught and ill-treated afresh.
The enemy, had only to fire at us to rouse our slumbering energy, for we
suffered voluntarily, and were a support to each other, because of our
firm conviction that we were giving our lives for the sake of our
independence.

It rained when we arrived at Tafelkop, and when we had been there a week
it still rained. The only clothes we possessed were beginning to rot on
our bodies. Some of the burghers had a change of clothes on the
trolleys; others made themselves trousers of their many-coloured
blankets, in which they cut a remarkable figure. Others, again, were in
tatters, and had to disappear on the few occasions that any lady visited
us. Most of the men had no mackintoshes, but always looked forward to
the sunshine that was sure to follow a heavy shower. But if the rain
continued, we made huts of grass, or clubbed together in the few
remaining tents, or if there happened to be an unburned farmhouse, we
made for that.

When the rain continued at Tafelkop, and our limbs became stiffened with
the cold, some of us went to an outhouse belonging to a neighbouring
farm to seek shelter. During the day we sat there in our wet