t night until I could go no farther, thinking that the
Colonial volunteers were in pursuit. If I had known they were English
cavalry I should have given myself up, for I was nearly done."

As pronounced by him, "Fiyune," his name does not sound familiar to
English ears, and it was therefore not until some time afterwards that
Major King knew he had been entertained by the notorious Ben Viljoen,
who was first reported among the killed at Elandslaagte, then as wounded
and a prisoner, but who in fact got away from the fight almost
unscathed, and now holds a command in the Boer force outside Ladysmith.
Interviews with a senior commandant, who was by no means complaisant,
and finally with Schalk-Burger, followed. The latter, after raising many
difficulties and dangling prospects of imprisonment in Pretoria before
Major King, finally consented to release that officer on condition that
he would not take any military advantage of what he had seen or heard in
the Boer lines. That condition has been honourably kept, but the Major
does not feel himself bound to make any secret of the fact that while
the Boers kept him under detention they treated him "devilish well."
This way of putting it may seem a little ambiguous, but those who know
General Hunter's light-hearted A.D.C. will understand the sincerity of
his tribute to the hospitality of Commandants Schalk-Burger and Ben
Viljoen.

Another Boer, who may be credited with a desire to say pleasant things,
was talking under a flag of truce with an English officer about the
prospects on each side. "We admit," he said, "that the British soldiers
are the best in the world, and your regimental officers the bravest,
but--we rely on your generals."

Even on the battlefield, when men are apt to be carried away by the lust
of fighting, many incidents have happened that touch the chords of
sympathy. The Boers have curious notions about white flags and Geneva
Crosses, but so far as our experience goes nobody can accuse them of
inhumanity to a fallen or helpless foe, except in the matter of firing
on hospitals when they think there are military reasons to justify them.
They shelled the Town Hall of Ladysmith persistently while sick and
wounded were lying there and the Red Cross flag waved above its
clock-tower. In reply to a protest from Sir George White, Commandant
Schalk-Burger defended his gunners on the plea that we had no right to a
hospital in Ladysmith while there was a neutral camp at