e relieving column when it was known
that they had also taken part in the siege; "Another bar," said the
medal-hunters.

Colonel Mahon's column consisted of 900 mounted men of the Imperial
Light Horse, under Lieutenant-Colonel Edwardes, and the amalgamation of
local troops known as the Kimberley Mounted Corps, under Colonel King;
100 picked volunteers from the Fusilier Brigade; four guns of M Battery
Royal Horse Artillery, under Major Jackson, and a pom-pom section (two
guns), under Captain Robinson, the whole artillery force consisting
of 100 men; three Maxims, 56 waggons, and several private Cape carts,
660 mules; in all, 1,200 horses and 1,100 men.

[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF SIGNED MENU OF THE RELIEF DINNER AT
MAFEKING]

The staff was: Colonel Mahon, 8th Hussars, brigadier; Captain
Bell-Smythe, 1st Dragoon Guards, chief staff officer; Colonel Frank
Rhodes, late Royal Dragoons, chief of Intelligence Department; Prince
Alexander of Teck, 7th Hussars, A.D.C.; Major Jackson, commanding Royal
Artillery; Major Sir John Willoughby, late of the Blues; Major the Hon.
Maurice Gifford, attached to the Imperial Yeomanry, general staff; and
Lieutenant F.W. Smith, Kimberley Mounted Corps, galloper. There was not
an officer on the staff whose industry and good sense did not contribute
to the success of the expedition; and we correspondents owe a peculiar
gratitude to Colonel Rhodes, who acted as Press Censor. No doubt his own
experience as a correspondent helped him to fulfil what is always a
responsible and seldom an easy office. He was always considerate, always
interested, always kind and always fair.

Here ends an imperfect narrative of the relief. What the deliverers saw
on Thursday morning was a little white town lying in the midst of a
wide shallow basin of green moorland; and it reminded one of a town that
had been long deserted and in ruins. I am not exaggerating when I say
that by far the greater number of houses in the town had been struck by
shells, and that very nearly all had been struck either by shells or
bullets.

After the engagement on Thursday morning the relieving column formed up
and entered the town, headed by Colonel Baden-Powell, Colonel Mahon, and
his staff. As one passed house after house, one with a gaping hole in
its side, another with the chimneys overthrown, another with a whole
wall stove in, none with windows completely glazed, all bearing some
mark of assault--as this panorama of destructio