nd awaiting an opportunity to
break out of the Model Schools, I made every preparation to make a
graceful exit when the moment should arrive. I gave full instructions to
my friends as to what was to be done with my clothes and the effects I
had accumulated during my stay; I paid my account to date with the
excellent Boshof; cashed a cheque on him for 20_l_.; changed some of the
notes I had always concealed on my person since my capture into gold;
and lastly, that there might be no unnecessary unpleasantness, I wrote
the following letter to the Secretary of State:

States Model Schools Prison: December 10, 1899.

Sir,--I have the honour to inform you that as I do not
consider that your Government have any right to detain me as a
military prisoner, I have decided to escape from your custody.
I have every confidence in the arrangements I have made with
my friends outside, and I do not therefore expect to have
another opportunity of seeing you. I therefore take this
occasion to observe that I consider your treatment of
prisoners is correct and humane, and that I see no grounds
for complaint. When I return to the British lines I will make
a public statement to this effect. I have also to thank you
personally for your civility to me, and to express the hope
that we may meet again at Pretoria before very long, and under
different circumstances. Regretting that I am unable to bid
you a more ceremonious or a personal farewell,

I have the honour, to be, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
WINSTON CHURCHILL.

To Mr. de Souza,
Secretary of War, South African Republic.

I arranged that this letter, which I took great pleasure in writing,
should be left on my bed, and discovered so soon as my flight was known.

It only remained now to find a hat. Luckily for me Mr. Adrian Hofmeyr, a
Dutch clergyman and pastor of Zeerust, had ventured before the war to
express opinions contrary to those which the Boers thought befitting
for a Dutchman to hold. They had therefore seized him on the outbreak of
hostilities, and after much ill-treatment and many indignities on the
Western border, brought him to the States Schools. He knew most of the
officials, and could, I think, easily have obtained his liberty had he
pretended to be in sympathy with the Republics. He was, however, a true
man, and after the clergyman of the Church of England, wh