ceeded to Pretoria and were given every facility for discussion and
consultation by the British authorities. On April 18th they temporarily
dispersed to consult their Commandos after being given the terms and
concessions which it was decided to grant. There were supposed to be, at
the most liberal computation--London _Times_ of April 25th--some 10,000
Boers in the field at this time, while the women, children and Boer
residents of the refugee camps, who were being fed and cared for by the
authorities, numbered 110,000.

The keenest interest had been taken by the King in the course of the war
during this period and in the negotiations which ensued. He had been
hoping for its termination before his Coronation and, some months prior
to this, on January 15th, had addressed a re-inforcement of the
Grenadier Guards in rather sanguine terms: "I trust that the duties you
will be called upon to perform will be less arduous than those of some
of the men who have gone before you and that the war will shortly be
brought to a close. But, whatever duties you may be called upon to
perform, I am sure you will fulfil them efficiently and will keep up the
old spirit and traditions for which the Guards are famous." His wishes,
like so many entertained throughout the Empire, were not speedily
realized, but it is safe to say that His Majesty would no more have
unduly hurried the course of negotiations or changed their effective and
final character in order to attain his natural desire for a peaceful
celebration of the Coronation--as was asserted in some sensational
quarters--than he would have cut his own hand off.

It is sometimes forgotten that the King not only embodies the authority
of his vast realm in his position, but must concentrate in his own
person a natural strength of pride in his Empire so great as to be far
beyond the possibility of a reflection upon its patriotism. He would
hardly be human in his qualities if the most intense patriotic pride in
the unity and power of his realms was not the first and strongest
instinct of his nature. But this in passing. Lord Salisbury illustrated
the attitude of both the Sovereign and his Ministers when speaking at
the Albert Hall, London, on May 7th, during the pending negotiations: "I
only wish to guard against misapprehension which I think I have seen, to
the effect that the willingness we have shown to listen to all that may
be said to us is a proof that we have retreated or receded from