which strengthened my belief that the two suspicious characters at
Zoutpan were the informers. Whenever we, as the attacking party, made
prisoners, they always declared that they had known all about our plan
of attack--probably to discourage us with the thought that through the
treachery of our own people the enemy always knew all about our
movements.

For a long way we followed the same road that we had taken with
Commandant Boshoff to Rustenburg. We arrived safely at Waterval-Boven
(President Kruger having already retreated from Machadodorp), where we
stayed a few days and heard the famous Battle of Dalmanutha (August
27)--the most awful roar of cannon that I have ever heard.

From Waterval-Boven we went to Nelspruit, to which President Kruger had
moved in his railway-home. We gave our horses a week's rest and passed
the time fishing and hunting. We were content there, as we got plenty to
eat, and our horses, too, were well fed--an important matter to us just
then. Circumstances were forcing us to attach much value to all sorts of
trifles that we would formerly not even have noticed.

If once one has suffered the pangs of hunger, one learns to value the
comfort and luxury of home; and if one has wandered about for weeks
without seeing woman or child, one learns to appreciate their gentleness
and charm and to understand Schiller's Züchtige Hausfrau in 'Das Lied
von der Glocke.' How often in our wanderings we longed for good
literature during our long, tiring, monotonous rides! And how terrible
was the thought of the moral hurt we were suffering--voluntarily in a
way, yet forced to it by a sense of honour and duty. For in this lay the
grievousness of the war, that a powerful nation--influenced by a few
unscrupulous leaders--was trying to annihilate a small nation that