is manner.

With regard to the 35,000 men which your Excellency says are in
your hands, I cannot speak as to the numbers, but this much I will
say, I am not referring to those men who were led astray by the
Proclamation of your Excellency's predecessor, and so failed in
their duty to their Government; nor to those--thank God they are
but few--who from treachery or other cause have gone over to the
enemy; but of the remainder who have been taken, not too honestly,
as prisoners of war, and are still kept as such. Of these I will
say that they are either old men and feeble, or young boys not yet
of age, who were carried off by force from their farms by your
Excellency's troops, and shut up against their will in your
Excellency's camps. To say of these therefore, that they are
"dwelling peacefully with you," is an assertion which can hardly be
taken seriously. I am able to say with perfect truth, that except
the prisoners, and the few who have gone over to the enemy, the
overpowering majority of the fighting burghers are still under
arms. As regards those who have gone over from us to the enemy--a
rare occurrence now--I can only say that our experience is not
unique, for history shows that in all wars for freedom, as in
America and elsewhere, there were such: and we shall try to get on
without them.

As regards the 74,000 women and children who, as your Excellency
alleges, are maintained in the camps, it appears to me that your
Excellency must be unaware of the cruel manner in which these
defenceless ones were dragged away from their dwellings by your
Excellency's troops, who first destroyed all the goods and property
of their wretched captives. Yes, to such a pass had it come, that
whenever your men were seen approaching, the poor sacrifices of the
war, in all weathers, by day and by night, would flee from their
dwellings in order that they might not be taken.

Does your Excellency realize that your troops have not been ashamed
to fire (in the full knowledge of what they were doing) with guns
and small arms on our helpless ones when they, to avoid capture,
had taken flight, either alone or with their waggons, and thus many
women and children have been killed and wounded. I will give you an
instance. Not long ago, on the 6th of June, at Graspan,