but for the slung Mauser and the full cartridge belt over the
shoulder or round the waist. Except for a few gunners, there is no
uniform in the Boer Army. Even the officers can hardly be distinguished
from ordinary farmers. The only thing that could be called uniform is
the broad-brimmed soft hat of grey or brown. But all Boers wear it. It
is generally very stained and dirty, and invariably a rusty crape band
is wound about the crown. For the Boer, like the English poorer classes,
has large quantities of relations, and one of them is always dying.

By the courtesy of the Pretorian Government I had secured room in the
guard's van for myself and a companion, who was equally anxious to
cross the Natal frontier before the firing began, and that was expected
at any moment. In the van with us were a score of farmers from
Middleburg way, their contingent occupying four trains with about 800
men and horses. For the most part they were fine tall men with shaggy
light beards, reminding one of Yorkshire farmers, but rougher and not so
well dressed. Most of them could speak some English, and many had Scotch
or English relatives. They lay on the floor or sat on the edge of the
van, talking quietly and smoking enormous pipes. All deeply regretted
the war, regretted the farm left behind just when spring and rain are
coming, and they were full of foreboding for the women and children left
at the mercy of Kaffirs. There was no excitement or shouting or bravado
of any kind. So we travelled into the night, the monotony only broken by
one violent collision which shook us all flat on the floor, while arms
and stores fell crashing upon us. In the silent pause which followed,
whilst we wondered if we were dead, I could hear the Kaffirs chattering
in their mud huts close by, and in the distance a cornet was playing
"Home, Sweet Home," with variations.

It must have been the next evening, as we were waiting three or four
hours, as usual, for the line to clear, that General Joubert came up in
a special train. A few young men and boys in ordinary clothes formed his
"staff." The General himself wore the usual brown slouch hat with crape
band, and a blue frock coat, not luxuriously new. His beard was quite
white, but his long straight hair was still more black than grey. The
brown sallow face was deeply wrinkled and marked, but the dark brown
eyes were still bright, and looked out upon the world with a kind of
simplicity mingled with shrewdness, or