hat they proudly felt to be their heritage as well as ours. Their
presence in the very forefront of the fray betokened the advent of a
new era. Nobler looking men, or men of a nobler spirit, were never
brought together at the unfurling of any banner. They were the outcome
of competitions strangely keen and close. Sydney for instance called
for five hundred volunteers; but within a few days _three thousand_
five hundred valiant men were clamouring for acceptance. So was it in
Montreal. So it was everywhere. Often too at no slight financial
sacrifice was the post of peril sought. As a type of many more, I was
told of an Australian doctor who paid a substitute L300 to carry on
his practice, while he as a private joined the fighting ranks and
faced cheerily the manifold privations of the hungry veldt. Rich is
the empire that owns such sons; and myriads of them in the hour of
impending conflict were ready to say--

"War? We would rather peace! But, MOTHER, if fight we must,
There are none of your sons on whom you can lean with a surer trust.
Bone of your bone are we; and in death would be dust of your dust!"

It was the Ultimatum that thus linked to each other and to us those
loyal hearts that longed to keep the empire whole; and thus President
Kruger in his blindness became Greater Britain's boundless benefactor.

CHAPTER I

ON THE WAY TO BLOEMFONTEIN, AND IN IT

"For old times' sake
Don't let enmity live;
For old times' sake
Say you will forget and forgive.
Life is too short for quarrel;
Hearts are too precious to break;
Shake hands and let us be friends
For old times' sake!"

So gaily sang the Scots Guards as, in hope of speedy triumph and
return, we left Southampton for Kruger's Land on the afternoon of
October 21st, 1899.

[Illustration: _From a photograph by Mr Westerman_

A Magersfontein Boer Trench.]

Our last evening in England brought us the welcome tidings that on
that day, the Boers who had thus early invaded Natal with a view to
annexing it, had been badly beaten at Talana Hill. That seemed a good
beginning; and it sent us to sea with lightsome hearts; nor was it
till long after we landed in South Africa that we learned what had
really taken place during our cheerful voyage;--that on the very day
we embarked, the battle of Elandslaagte had been won by our
hard-pressed comrades, but at a cost of 260