erywhere.

Subsequently Colonel Price modified his tone towards me and allowed me
parole. He was also gracious enough to permit me and some companions
to occupy a little house 400 paces from the camp. This was a very
agreeable change, for now we were no longer subjected to the harsh
treatment of the "Tommies." Our little residence rejoiced in the
pleasantly-floral name of the "Myrtle Grove," and was rented by us
from an old coloured lady who vigorously insisted upon the punctual
payment of the rent, and drew our special attention to the fact that
plucking pears in the garden was strictly prohibited.

We had been told that the "Myrtle Grove" was haunted by ghosts, but
the ghosts, if any there were, must have been pro-Boers, since they
never disturbed us. But though we had no ghostly visitors we certainly
had some of another kind. The house was perfectly infested by
particularly large and bold rats. These thieving rodents, not
satisfied with robbing our larder, had the audacity to sup off our
fingers and ears while we were asleep. We waged vigorous war against
the vermin, and after considerable difficulty managed to get the
residence exclusively to ourselves. With the addition of some
furniture, with which Colonel Wright was good enough to provide us, we
made our house so comfortable that we felt ourselves almost in a
position to invite the Governor to dinner.

Our landlady, Mrs. Joshua, was the proud possessor of several donkeys,
which were turned loose in our garden, and a large number of fowls. I
may say that Mrs. Joshua was very ill-advised in keeping her fowls so
near our house, for our cook, who had been trained in commando, was
unable to resist the temptation of appropriating eggs. It did not,
however, take our landlady long to find out what was happening, and we
were informed that it was very much more Christianlike to purchase
eggs. We took the hint, and adopted as far as we could Christianlike
methods, though we found it extremely difficult to subscribe to all
the principles of Christianity practised by the Islanders.

We whiled away the time by taking daily walks, and, by making
excursions to the house at Longwood tenanted by Napoleon Bonaparte for
six and a half years, and to the grave where his remains were interred
for 19 years. I noticed that both places were being preserved and kept
in order by the French Government. We used to sit by the little
fountain, where the great French warrior so frequently sa