casualties; and that the
very next day--The _Nubia's_ first Sunday at sea--Dundee with all its
stores had perforce been abandoned by 4000 of our retreating troops,
for whose relief, two days later, Tinta Inyoni was fought by General
French; that on Oct. 29th while we were spending a tranquil Sunday
in St Vincent's harbour there commenced the struggle that culminated
in the Nicholson's Nek disaster; and that on Nov. 13th, while we were
awaiting orders in Table Bay, the capture of our armoured train at
Chieveley took place. Clearly it was blissful ignorance that begat our
hopes of brief absence from home, and of the easy vanquishing of our
hardy foes!

Two days later I reached the Orange River; and, on the courteous
suggestion of Lord Methuen, was attached to the mess of the 3rd
Grenadier Guards, as was also my "guide, philosopher and friend" the
Rev. T. F. Falkner our Anglican chaplain. Here I left my invaluable
helper, Army Scripture Reader Pearce; while, with the Guards' Brigade
now made complete by the arrival of the 1st and 2nd Coldstream
battalions, I pushed forward to be present at the four battles which
followed in startlingly swift succession, and which I have already
with sufficient fulness described in "Chaplains in Khaki," viz.
Belmont on Nov. 23rd, Graspan on Nov. 25th, Modder River on Nov. 28th,
and the Magersfontein defeat on Dec. 11th, for which, however, the
next Amajuba Day--Feb. 27th, 1900--brought us ample compensation in
the surrender of Cronje and his 4000 veterans, with the ever memorable
sequel to that surrender, the occupation of Bloemfontein by the
British forces.

[Sidenote: _A capital little Capital._]

It would probably be difficult to find anywhere under the sun a more
prosperous and promising little city, or one better governed than
Bloemfontein, which the Guards entered on the afternoon of Tuesday,
March 13th, 1900. There is not a scrap of cultivated land anywhere
around it. It is very literally a child of the veldt; and still clings
strangely to its nursing mother. Indeed the veldt is not only round
about it on every side, but even asserts its presence in many an
unfinished street. You are still on the veldt in the midst of the
city; and the characteristic kopje is in full view here, there, and
everywhere. On one side of the city is the old fort built by the
British more than fifty years ago, and soon after vacated by them, but
it is erected of course on a kopje, on one slope of which