enth-century
struggle.[201]

[Footnote 201: Any reader desiring to learn the particulars
of this struggle is referred to the pages of the writer's
_The Valley of Light: Studies with Pen and Pencil in the
Vaudois Valleys of Piedmont_. (Macmillan, 1899). It may be
added that Napoleon manifested a keen interest in the
military details of the engagements between the French and
Savoyard troops and the Vaudois. As regards the number of
combatants on the Boer side. Lord Kitchener puts the total
(from first to last) at 95,000 (Cd. 1790, p. 13). The
_Official History_, however, gives, as the result of an
elaborate calculation, 87,365 (Vol. I. App. 4).]

CHAPTER VIII

THE REBELLION IN THE CAPE COLONY

The direct share which Lord Milner took in the skilful disposition of
the handful of British troops available at the outbreak of the war for
the defence of the north-eastern frontier of the Cape Colony has been
mentioned. The part which he played during the first period of the war
in his relationship to the military authorities is sufficiently
indicated by the words which appear in Lord Roberts's final despatch.

"This despatch," writes the Commander-in-Chief on April 2nd,
1901, "would be incomplete were I to omit to mention the benefit
I have derived from the unfailing support and wise counsels of
Sir Alfred Milner. I can only say here that I have felt it a high
privilege to work in close communication with one whose courage
never faltered however grave the responsibilities might be which
surrounded him, and who, notwithstanding the absorbing cares of
his office, seemed always able to find time for a helpful message
or for the tactful solution of a difficult question."

That this is no conventional compliment, even in the mouth of so great
a general as Lord Roberts, will appear from the fact that on one
occasion--to be presently noted--Lord Milner's judgment did not
entirely recommend itself at the moment to the Commander-in-Chief.

[Sidenote: An unnatural alliance.]

But such services, important as they were, are mere accidents in
comparison with the volume of continuous and concentrated effort
required to keep the machinery of administration available for the
Imperial Government in a colony in which not merely the majority of
the inhabitants, but the majority of the memb