ose shoulders the blame primarily
rested for conditions which made such slavery possible; how it came to
pass that a few toy-guns and a handful of soldiers had been deemed
sufficient to protect Kimberley; and finally to vote the error of
judgment incompatible with good administration. And then we remembered
that the Bond was a powerful organisation, that a Bond Ministry was in
Office. The needed scapegoat, in the person of the Prime Minister, was
thus easily discovered. He it was who pooh-poohed the necessity of
_arming_ Kimberley, and we accordingly lost no time in setting him up in
the game of Siege Aunt Sally as a popular target for our rancour. And
pelted he was with right good will. The genial Mr. Quilp, when he found
himself deserted by his obsequious flatterer, Sampson Brass, cried out
in the seclusion of his apartment at the wharf: "Oh, Sampson, Sampson,
if I only had you here!" and he was considerably consoled by his
operations with a hammer on the desk in front of him. The feelings of
Mr. Quilp were understood, if not respected in Kimberley.

The name of the Prime Minister had not been long added to our "little
list" when a local liar led off mildly with intelligence of the
Premier's resignation. We improved on this by assuming that his
resignation was obligatory--that he had been "dismissed." That he had
been arrested was the fiction next resorted to; and finally it was
blazoned forth that he had been dismissed from the world altogether.
After that he was let rest, and we returned to the misdemeanours of
men, in and out of khaki, whose turns had not yet come. Let me observe
in passing that the Prime Minister was--as we learned subsequently--more
sinned against than sinning. His _apologia_, and the extent to which he
had been wronged and misrepresented are matters outside the scope of
these memoirs. But they shed a lurid light on the picturesque _canards_
we swallowed--and digested with an ease that any ostrich would envy.

While engrossed in these denunciations of everything and everybody,
Sunday glided by--glided, for the pendulum was not so slow on Sundays.
We prepared for the worst the Boers could do on the morrow--rumour said
it was to be very bad--and were in no way disposed to be comforted by
the message, on the seriousness of our position, which the Colonel was
credited with having despatched to Lord Roberts. We were unenlivened by
the talk we heard on all sides as to the probable effect of the Foreign