w, for I examined them minutely. Fortunately for the credit of
the British Army, most of our generals are coolheaded men who do not allow
the irresponsible chatter of the army to influence them. Otherwise our guns
would have been trained upon many a homestead on charges quite as flimsy
and groundless as the one quoted above.

I suppose that cases of treachery have really occurred during the war. In a
mixed crowd like that which composes the burgher army, there are sure to be
some mortals fit to do any mean trick, just as sure as there are men fit to
do or say anything in the British Army, But I cannot, and I will not,
believe that the great bulk of these men are such paltry cowards as to make
the "white flag" act a common one. It may be news to British readers to
know that the burghers complain of the behaviour of our troops as bitterly
as we complain of theirs; and I think, from personal observation, that
their charges are as groundless as are some charges made by the same class
of hysterical individuals, though of different nationality. Their pet
hatred, when I was a prisoner in their hands, was the Lancers. They used to
swear that the Lancers never spared a wounded man, but ran him through as
they galloped past him. I was told this fifty times, and each time told my
informant flatly that I declined to believe the assertion, and should
continue to disbelieve it until I had undeniable proof, for it would take a
good deal to convince me that a British soldier would strike a fallen foe
even in the heat and stress of battle. One day they asked me to come and
look at the dead body of one of their field cornets, whom they alleged to
have been done to death whilst wounded by our Lancers. I went and saw the
man, and at a glance saw that the wounds were not lance wounds at all, but
ripping bullet wounds. He had been sniped by some Australian riflemen from
a high kopje whilst in a valley. I tried to explain this to the excited
burghers, but they only sneered at me for my trouble, until one of their
own doctors coming along had a look at the corpse, and promptly verified my
statements. That calmed them considerably, and they looked at the thing in
cooler blood, and soon saw that it was really absurd to put the blame of
the man's death on the shoulders of the Lancers, though they stoutly
maintained that our cavalry were at times guilty of such monstrous conduct.
I have often heard them solemnly swear never to give a Lancer a chance