190

The Fighting near Belfast--Feeding under Fire--A German
Doctor's Confession--Friends in need are Friends indeed--The
Invisible Sniper's Triumph--"He sets the mournful Prisoners
free"--More Boer Slimness--A Boer Hospital--Foreign
Mercenaries--A wounded Australian--Hotel Life on the Trek--
A Sheep-pen of a Prison--Pretty Scenery and Superb.

CHAPTER XIII

WAR'S WANTON WASTE 210

A Surrendered Boer General--Two Unworthy Predikants--Two
Notable Advocates of Clemency--Mines without Men, and Men
without Meat--Much Fat in the Fire--More Fat and Mightier
Flames--A Welcome Lift by the Way--"Rags and Tatters, get ye
gone!"--Destruction and still more Destruction--At Koomati
Poort--Two Notable Fugitives--The Propaganda of the Africander
Bond--Ex-President Steyn--Paul Botha's opinion of this
Ex-President.

CHAPTER XIV

FROM PORTUGUESE AFRICA TO PRETORIA 231

Staggering Humanity--Food for Flames--A Crocodile in the
Koomati--A Hippopotamus in the Koomati--A Via Dolorosa--
Over the Line--Westward Ho!--Ruined Farms and Ruined Firms--
Farewell to the Guards' Brigade!

CHAPTER XV

A WAR OF CEASELESS SURPRISES 245

Exhaustlessness of Boer resources--The Peculiarity of Boer
Tactics--The Surprisers Surprised--Train Wrecking--The
Refugee Camps--The Grit of the Guards--The Irregulars--The
Testimony of the Cemetery--Death and Life in Pretoria.

CHAPTER XVI

PRETORIA AND THE ROYAL FAMILY 261

Suzerainty turned to Sovereignty--Prince Christian Victor--A
Royal Funeral--A Touching Story--The Death of the Queen--
The King's Coronation.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

THE ULTIMATUM AND WHAT LED TO IT

When the late Emperor of the French was informed, on the eve of the
Franco-German War, that not so much as a gaiter button would be found
wanting if hostilities were at once commenced, soon all France found
itself, with him, fatally deceived. But when the Transvaal Burghers
boasted that they were "ready to give the British such a licking as
they had never had before," it proved no idle vaunting. Whether the
average Boer understood the real purpose for which he was called to
arms seems doubtful; but his leaders made no secret of their intention
to drive the hated "Roineks" into the sea, and to claim, as the
notorious "Bond" frankly put it, "all Sou