he service into which he had been
decoyed by the press-gang, and had probably been somewhat of a _mauvais
sujet_, for he told me the authorities were glad enough to give him his
discharge when the regiment returned to England. He had married and
settled in the Transvaal, making a moderate fortune, only to be ruined
by a lawsuit being given against him, entirely, he naively admitted,
because the Judge was a friend of the other side. In spite of this he
remained a most warm partisan of the corrupt Boer Government, and at
sixty-seven he had gladly turned out to fight the country whose uniform
he had once worn. Whenever I found we were approaching dangerous ground,
I used quickly to change the conversation, which perhaps was wise, as I
was but one in a mighty host.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] Two thousand Englishmen dead.

[33] Not to be confounded with General Louis Botha.

CHAPTER X

EXCHANGED FOR A HORSE-THIEF--BACK TO MAFEKING AFTER TWO
MONTHS' WANDERINGS

"Hail, fellow! well met!"--SWIFT.

Next morning I was awakened at 6 a.m. by Mr. Drake knocking at my door,
and telling me I was to be ready in half an hour, as Colonel
Baden-Powell had consented to exchange me for Petrus Viljoen. This
exchange had placed our Commanding Officer in an awkward position. The
prisoner was, as I stated before, a criminal, and under the jurisdiction
of the civil authorities, who would not take upon themselves the
responsibility of giving him up. Under these circumstances Lord Edward
Cecil had come forward and represented to Colonel Baden-Powell that it
was unseemly for an Englishwoman to be left in the hands of the Boers,
and transported to Pretoria by the rough coach, exposed to possible
insults and to certain discomforts. He even declared himself prepared to
take any consequent blame on his shoulders, and, being the Prime
Minister's son, his words had great weight. As a matter of fact, Petrus
Viljoen was anything but a fighting man, and could be of very little
service to our enemies. The burghers had told me his presence was so
persistently desired from the fact of the republic having private scores
to settle with him. In any case, he was very reluctant to leave Mafeking
and the safety of the prison, which fact had influenced Colonel
Baden-Powell in finally agreeing to the exchange.

As may be imagined, I could hardly believe my good fortune, and I lost
no time in scrambling into my clothes while the cart was being
in