who now had no chance of escaping. Everybody wanted some information
from the General.

About half a score of burghers with bridle horses then came up. There
was one old burgher among them with a long beard, a great veldt hat,
and armed with a Mauser which seemed hardly to have been used. He
carried two belts with a good stock of cartridges, a revolver, and a
_tamaai_ (long sjambok). This veteran strode up in grand martial style
to where I was sitting having something to eat. As he approached he
looked brave enough to rout the whole British army.

"Dag!" (Good morning.) "Are you the General?" asked the old man.

"Yes, I have the honour of being called so. Are you a field-marshal, a
Texas Jack, or what?"

"My name is Erasmus, from the Pretoria district," he replied, "and my
nine comrades and myself, with my family and cattle, have gone into
the bush. I saw them all running away, the Government and all. You are
close to the Portuguese border, and my mates and I want to know what
your plans are."

"Well," Mr. Erasmus, I returned, "what you say is almost true; but as
you say you and your comrades have been hiding in the bush with your
cattle and your wives, I should like to know if you have ever tried to
oppose the enemy yet, and also what is your right to speak like this."

"Well, I had to flee with my cattle, for you have to live on that as
well as I."

"Right," said I; "what do you want, for I do not feel inclined to talk
any longer."

"I want to know," he replied, "if you intend to retire, and if there
is any chance of making peace. If not, we will go straight away to
Buller, and 'hands-up,' then we shall save all our property."

"Well, my friend," I remarked, "our Government and the
Commandant-General are the people who have to conclude peace, and it
is not for you or me, when our family and cattle are in danger, to
surrender to the enemy, which means turning traitor to your own
people."

"Well, yes; good-bye, General, we are moving on now."

I sent a message to our outposts to watch these fellows, and to see if
they really were going over to the enemy. And, as it happened, that
same night my Boers came to camp with the Mausers and horses Erasmus
and his party had abandoned. They had gone over to Buller.

The above is but an instance illustrating what often came under my
notice during the latter period of my command. This sort of burgher,
it turned out, invariably belonged to a class that never meant to