s of the South African sub-continent.

About noon, so Mr Morris told me, a company of Lancers came into the
open space in front of the Court-house, and formed a hollow square
around the flagstaff. Not long after Lord Roberts with his Staff, and
Commandant Krause, rode into the square; then the Vierkleur slid down
the staff, and instantly after up went Lady Roberts' little silken
Union Jack. The British flag floated at last over this essentially
British town, the sure pledge as we hope of honest government and of
equal rights alike for Briton and for Boer. It was two o'clock before
the Guards' Brigade reached this saluting point, but till nearly
midnight one continuous stream of men and horses, of guns and
ambulances, passed through the streets to their respective camping
grounds. These well fagged troops by their fitness, even more than by
their numbers, astonished many an onlooker who was by no means a "raw
Kaffir"; and one old Dutchman expressed the thought of many minds when
he said, "You seem able to turn out soldiers by machinery, _all of the
same age_!"

My excellent host of that red-letter day adds: "It is intensely
gratifying to be able, after the lapse of more than nine months, to
give our soldiers the same good name that was so well deserved then.
To deny that there had been any offences would be ridiculous; but the
absence of serious crime, and more particularly of gross offences,
must be acknowledged to confer upon our South African army a unique
distinction." That witness is true!

CHAPTER IX

PRETORIA THE CITY OF ROSES

War and worship live only on barest speaking terms, and to the latter
the former makes few concessions; so it came to pass that Whitsunday,
like so many another Sunday spent in South Africa, found us again upon
the march, with the inevitable result that no parade service could
possibly be held. Everybody, however, seemed full of confident
expectation that the next day we should reach Pretoria, and perhaps
take possession of it.

[Sidenote: _Whit-Monday and Wet Tuesday._]

"If we take Pretoria on Whit-Monday," said one of the Guardsmen, "they
will get the news in England next day, and then that will be Wet
Tuesday"; which was a prophecy that seemed not in the least unlikely
to be fulfilled, inasmuch as an Englishman's favourite way of showing
his supreme delight is by accepting an extra drink, or offering one.
Others were of opinion that, with a ring of forts around Pretoria