tween neighbours and
cousins, is the sternest test of loyalty. Many have failed to stand it.
But the loyalty of those who have not wavered, but have taken up arms
for their country in a quarrel like this, is of a sort you can trust to
the utmost extremity. There are no men in the field who feel so deep an
animosity towards the Boers, and whom the Boers in their turn hate so
much, as the fighting South African Colonials. As for the Guides, I can
assure you that there has not been a single case of any one of our men
having been accused of treachery, nor suspected of treachery. I have
made careful inquiries, lest such a case might have occurred without my
knowledge, and I am assured by our adjutant (C.H. Rankin, Captain 7th
Hussars) that there has been no such case, and that the slander was
without the slightest foundation whatever.

Shortly after Magersfontein the greater part of the Guides turned back
to Colesberg, leaving fifteen of us with Methuen, the services of the
whole corps not being required, as Methuen's force was now stationary.
Before it left, Methuen paraded the corps and spoke in the warmest terms
of the good work it had done. Nevertheless it was their turning back, or
being _sent back_, as it was called, that gave a pretext to the slander
that was then started. Later, when his attention was called to the
story, Methuen wrote to the _Cape Times_ a most emphatic letter
vindicating the corps from the least suspicion, and indignantly denying
that the least cause for any had existed. Lord Roberts himself, who came
up soon afterwards, wrote a very handsome and decisive letter to the
same paper, and since then I don't think we have heard anything about
it. The whole story is so ridiculous, considering the way the Guides
hate the Boers, and the danger of the services they do, that to any one
who knows anything about the corps it is a tale rather to be laughed, at
than seriously resented. I saw the other day a letter from Hunter to
Rimington, in which the General speaks of the corps with a kind of
weighty deliberation that is very satisfactory, mentioning emphatically
its "trustworthiness," its "bravery," and its "exceptional and proved
value in the field."

Our casualty list so far is about forty per cent., I believe; but this
loss, though not light, does not in a Colonial corps give an adequate
idea of the service done. All the Colonials, so far as I know (the
Australians and South Africans certainly), have much