help defend the town; his assistance was urgently needed there in
obtaining information respecting the Boers from the natives, whose
language he talked like his own. She had five small children, and was
shortly expecting an addition to her family, so at last I had found
someone who was more to be pitied than myself. She, on the other hand,
told me our arrival was a godsend to her, as it took her thoughts off
her troubles.

Affairs in the neighbourhood seemed in a strange confusion. Mr. Keeley
was actually the _Veldtcornet_ of the district, an office which in times
of peace corresponded to that of a magistrate. In reality he was shut up
in Mafeking, siding against the Dutch. The surrounding country was
peopled entirely, if sparsely, by Dutch farmers and natives, the former
of whom at first and before our reverses professed sympathy with the
English; but no wonder the poor wife looked to the future with dread,
fearful lest British disasters would be followed by Boer reprisals.

Towards sunset Vellum appeared with a note from Sergeant Matthews. It
ran as follows:

"The armoured train captured; its fifteen occupants all killed.[25]
Boers opened fire on the train with field artillery."

In our isolation these words sank into our souls like lead, and were
intensified by the fact that we had that very morning been so near the
scene of the tragedy--"reverse" I would not allow it to be called, for
fifteen men had tried conclusions with 400 Boers, and had been merely
hopelessly outnumbered. The latter had, however, scored an initial
success, and the intelligence cast a gloom, even where all was blackest
night. Vellum brought a few more verbal details, to the effect that