ake an impression upon the memory, but it
marked a battlefield where the burghers fought desperately. Children were
then gathering peaches from the trees, whose roots drank the blood of
heroes months afterwards. Several miles farther on were the hills on the
outskirts of Pretoria, where, in the war of 1881, the Boer laagers sent
forth men to encompass the city and to prevent the British besieged in it
from escaping. It was ground hallowed in Boer history since the early
voortrekkers crossed the ridges of the Magaliesberg and sought protection
from the savage hordes of Moselekatse in the fertile valley of the Aapjes
River.

Pretoria in war-time was most peaceful. In the days before the
commencement of hostilities it was a city of peace as contrasted with the
metropolis, Johannesburg, and its warring citizens, but when cannon were
roaring on the frontier, Pretoria itself seemed to escape even the echoes.
After the first commandos had departed the city streets were deserted, and
only women and children gathered at the bulletin boards to learn the fate
of the burgher armies. The stoeps of houses and cottages were deserted of
the bearded yeomanry, and the halls of the Government buildings resounded
only with the tread of those who were not old or strong enough to bear
arms. The long ox-waggons which in former times were so common in the
streets were not so frequently to be seen, but whenever one of them rolled
toward the market square, it was a Boer woman who cracked the raw-hide
whip over the heads of the oxen. Pretoria was the same quaint city as of
old, but it lacked the men who were its most distinguishing feature. The
black-garbed Volksraad members, the officials, and the old retired
farmers, who were wont to discuss politics on the stoeps of the capitol
and the Transvaal Hotel were absent. Inquiries concerning them could be
addressed only to women and children, and the replies invariably were:
"They are on commando," or, "They were killed in battle."

The scenes of activity in the city were few in number, and they were
chiefly in connection with the arrival of foreign volunteers and the
transit of burgher commandos on the way to the field. The Grand Hotel and
the Transvaal Hotel, the latter of which was conducted by the Government
for the temporary entertainment of the volunteers, were constantly filled
with throngs of foreigners, comprising soldiers of fortune, Red Cross
delegations, visitors, correspondents, and cont