st, in 1899, following upon an ultimatum
demanding the withdrawal of British troops from the borders of the
Republic, war broke out. It had undoubtedly been hastened by the
ill-fated and ill-advised raid in 1896 of Dr Jameson, the
administrator of Rhodesia.

It is scarcely necessary to review the details of this war at any
length. It proved conclusively that the Government of this country
had vastly underrated the resisting powers of the Boers. For three
years the British army was forced to wage a guerilla warfare, and
adapt itself to entirely new methods of campaigning.

On May 28, 1900, the Orange Free State was annexed under the name
of the Orange River Colony. In June Lord Roberts entered Pretoria,
but the war dragged on until 1902, when a Peace Conference was held
and the Boer Republics became part of the British Empire. Very
liberal terms were offered to and accepted by the conquered Dutch.
But long before this event took place Queen Victoria had passed away.
She had followed the whole course of the war with the deepest interest
and anxiety, and when Lord Roberts returned to this country, leaving
Lord Kitchener in command in South Africa, the Queen was desirous
of hearing from his own lips the story of the campaign.

The public was already uneasy about the state of her health, and on
January 20th it was announced that her condition had become serious.
On Tuesday, January 22, she was conscious and recognized the members
of her family watching by her bedside, but on the afternoon of the
same day she peacefully passed away. One of the last wishes she
expressed was that her body should be borne to rest on a gun-carriage,
for she had never forgotten that she was a soldier's daughter.

On the day of the funeral the horses attached to the gun-carriage
became restive, and the sailors who formed the guard of honour took
their place, and drew the coffin, draped in the Union Jack, to its
last resting-place.

Through the streets of London, which had witnessed two great Jubilee
processions, festivals of rejoicing and thanksgiving, the funeral
cortege passed, and a great reign and a great epoch in history had
come to an end.

CHAPTER XV: _Victoria the Great_

The keynote of Queen Victoria's life was simplicity. She was a great
ruler, and at the same time a simple-minded, sympathetic woman, the
true mother of her people. She seemed by some natural instinct to
understand their joys and their sorrows, and this was