rising to
receive it, received instead a murderous volley of rifle fire, as the
result of which the correspondent of _The Morning Post_ had his right
arm hopelessly shattered.

At Talana Hill, our first battle in Natal, the beaten Boers raised a
white flag on a bamboo pole, but when our gunners thereupon ceased
firing, "the brother" instead of surrendering bolted! At Colenso, a
company of burghers with rifles flung over their backs, and waving a
white flag, approached within a short distance of the foremost British
trenches, but when our troops raised their heads to welcome these
surrendering foes, they were instantly stormed at by shot and shell.
At length General Buller found it necessary in face of such frequent
treachery, officially to warn his whole army to be on their guard
against the white flag, a flag which to his personal knowledge was
already through such misuse stained with the blood of two gallant
British officers, besides many men.

It is said that when Sir Burne Jones' little daughter was once in such
a specially angry mood as to scratch and bite and spit, her father
somewhat roughly shook the child and said, "I do not see what has got
into you, Millicent; the devil must teach you these things."
Whereupon, the little one indignantly flashed back this reply:--"Well
the devil may have taught me to scratch and bite, but the spitting is
my own idea!" With equal justice the Boers may claim that though the
ordinary horrors and agonies of war are of the devil, this persistent
abuse of the white flag is their own idea. Of that practice they
possess among civilized nations an absolute monopoly, and the red
cross flag has often fared no better at their hands.

But then it would be absurd and most unfair to blame the two
Republics as a whole for this. No people on earth would approve such
practices, and doubtless they were as great a pain to many an
honourable Boer as they were to us. But upland farmers who have spent
their lives in fighting savage beasts, and still more savage men, are
slow to distinguish between lawful tricking and unlawful treachery,
and are apt to account all things fair that help to win the game.

[Sidenote: _The pet lamb still lives and learns!_]

During this long trek through worlds unknown, our pet lamb, perchance
taking encouragement from the example of the two chaplains, followed
us all the way on foot, and became quite soldierly in its tastes and
tendencies. It scorned even to look