Kimberley"; the "fall" of Mafeking, forsooth, had staggered us so much
that we did not want to fight. We were in our last gasps for a drop of
water. Terrible guns were being wheeled to the diamond fields, to
scatter it to the four winds of heaven. The diamonds were first to be
blown out of the mines, and with them the local "imaginative"
shareholders; while the _Verkleur_ was to be unfurled Over the City
Hall. All the perishable property was to be confiscated, and consumed as
a sort of foretaste of what was due to the proud invaders' valour. Such
was the romance dinned into the ears of our visitors. Happily, they made
allowances for Bantu palsy, and did not hesitate to ignore it.

Saturday proved altogether uneventful, and prolific in nothing but
outrageous lies. One item of news, however, was but too true: the good
folk of Windsorton had surrendered to the Boers. Intelligence of a more
agreeable nature followed soon after. Cronje's repulse at Mafeking, and
the British victory at Glencoe, made us hopeful at the end of a week,
the beginning of which had looked so ominous; and nearly all things were
to our satisfaction on Saturday night when the third part of our "time"
had formally expired.




CHAPTER II

_Week ending 28th October, 1899_


After a hard and anxious week, Sunday was indeed a day of rest. We
enjoyed it because we felt instinctively that an enemy who sincerely