r and a shilling into the
particular tambourine which happens at the moment to be raising the
loudest clamour, and honestly believes himself to have achieved some
nobility at second-hand.

Our glory? Hardly that. Those who, justly or unjustly, place the martyr
in his last predicament do not wear his crown; and the glory of Trooper
A's death does not rest with you or me, but with those in whose hearts
his memory is quick and real. To count these scores of deaths, as it
were, to our credit in the war, to esteem them merely as things for
which more vengeance must be taken, would be the last and greatest
mistake. Surely they lie in the scale of responsibility, they are things
for which an account must be rendered, by which an obligation is
incurred to use well the fruits of victory.

There is no need that the wind should moan over this desolate patch, or
that the tattered geranium should scatter its withered leaves on the
unlovely ground. Were it as sweet as a garden in Delos, were the ground
carpeted with violet and primrose and shadows of laburnum, the
burying-ground of Mafeking would still be a sad spot on the chart of
British South Africa.

XXVI

GOOD-BYE TO MAFEKING

A sudden order from General Hunter; a morning of preparation; a
commotion of dismantling, packing, harnessing, saddling; handshaking and
well-wishing; cheers ringing, hoofs clattering, dust rising beneath
wheels and many feet, a backward glance along the road, and--Good-bye to
Mafeking. An episode in the lives of men, and one which, in spite of the
excitement that went before it, will probably leave a small though deep
impression. Life there was dull beyond words, perhaps because there must
be a reaction after seven months of excitement, and because the nature
of man is elastic, springing quickly back to the commonplace when an
unusual element in its circumstances has been withdrawn. I tried hard to
fancy that the people of the garrison bore in their faces or manners
some sign of the strain which they had undergone. But the months seemed
to have left no traces except on the buildings and on the cemetery; or
perhaps their mark upon the besieged men was set beneath the surface
scanned by a casual observer. At any rate, the people of Mafeking could
not successfully be exhibited in a show of wonders, and they took less
interest in their food than did we, their deliverers, who lived with
them for a while in what might be called "poor circumstances