lent
vivid colour to the otherwise sombre throng.

We watered and grazed near an outlying picket, and saw many prisoners
coming in in twos and threes, and giving up their rifles. What will
they do with them? They are nominally rebels since the 15th of June;
but I doubt if a tenth of them ever heard of Roberts's proclamation.
Communications are few in this big, wild country; and their leaders
systematically deceive them. Besides, to call the country conquered
when Bloemfontein was taken, is absurd. The real fighting had not
begun then, and whole districts such as this were unaffected. It seems
to me that morally, if not legally, these people are fair-and-square
civilized belligerents, who have fought honestly for their homes, and
treated our prisoners humanely. Deportation over-sea and confiscation
of farms seem hard measures, and I hope more lenience will be shown.

In the evening Doctor Moon, of the Hampshire Yeomanry, a great friend
of Williams, turned up, and had supper with us. We had no fatted calf
to kill; but fortunately could show a tolerable _menu_, including beef
and marmalade.

I was on picket this night. About midnight a lot of Boer prisoners,
and a long train of their ox-waggons, began coming in. It was very
dark, and they blundered along, knocking down telegraph posts, and
invading regimental lines, amidst a frightful din from the black
drivers, and a profane antiphony between two officers, of the camp and
the convoy respectively.

In my second watch, in the small hours, a Tommy with a water-cart
strayed into our lines, asking for the Boer prisoners, for whom he had
been sent to get water. He swore copiously at the nature of his job in
particular, and at war in general. I showed him the way, and consoled
him with tobacco.

_August 1._--Grazing and harness-cleaning all day. More prisoners came
in, and also our old friends the Munsters, and General Paget. Rumours
galore. We are going to Cape Town with the prisoners; to Harrismith;
to Winberg; to the Transvaal on another campaign, etc. Definite orders
came to move the next morning. In the evening an unusual flood of odds
and ends of rations was poured on us; flour, a little biscuit, a
little fat for cooking, diminutive hot potatoes, a taste of goose,
commandeered the same day by the mounted gunners, a little butter from
the same source, besides the usual sugar, cooked meat, and tea.
Drawing from this _cornucopia_ was a hard evening's work. We also got