ffered by our men, and it is evident that Pretoria will not
be defended. All we can do is to escape before the English take
possession."

Mrs. van Warmelo then told her sons of the retreat of the President
from the capital, with the entire Government, by the eastern railway
route.

The greatest consternation had been caused by this flight at first,
but subsequent events went to prove that this was the wisest course
which could have been pursued.

In this decision the President had been urged by his wife, and Mrs.
van Warmelo went on to tell how the brave old lady had said to her in
an expressive way, on the occasion of her last visit at the
President's house:

"My dear friend, do not fear. No Englishman will ever lay his hand on
the coat-tails of the President."

It is quite impossible to describe the confusion that ensued during
the next few days.

No one knew what to do; there were no organised Boer forces to join,
there was no one in command, and, after long deliberation, the two
young men, urged by mother and sister, came to the conclusion that,
whatever other men might be doing, _their_ duty was to get out of
Pretoria and join whatever band of fighting burghers there might still
be in the field.

The same spirit of determination not to fall into the hands of the
enemy while the Boer Government was free, and could continue
organising the war, prevailed amongst most of the men in Pretoria, and
daily small parties could be seen leaving the town, in carts, on
horseback, on bicycles, and even on foot. Where they were going and
when they would return no one knew.

On the morning of June 4th, the necessary preparations for the
departure of the young men having been made, as they were sitting at
what proved to be their last meal together for such long and terrible
years, they were suddenly startled by the sound of cannon-firing and
the whistling of a shell through the air.

They listened, speechless, as the shell burst on Schanskop Fort, on
the Sunnyside hill, just beyond Harmony, with an explosion that shook
the house.

It was followed by another and yet another.

So little were the inhabitants of Pretoria prepared for this that
everyone at first thought that the shells were being fired, for some
unaccountable reason, by the Boers, from the Pretoria Forts, until a
few of them burst so close to the houses that the fragments of rock
and shell fell like hail on the iron roofs. The other members of the
family